Reunited
by Kat Laleh
Summary: Blue haired Eris survives school through sarcasm. But when a Controller gets into her head, will she have the strength to fight? And will the other Mythics be able to help her in time? Sequel to Mythics. R&R!
1. Chapter 1 Knock Knock Jokes

**i'm alive! yaaay! sorry about the long wait for the story. i wanted to wait to make sure i had seomthing solid here and then got a new computer and my old files werent combatible with the new computers (ack! so annoying!) so, finally, without further delay something new and hopefully exciting.**

**my regular reviewers, u know what to do! love you guys! new reviewers, this is a sequel. while i put enough background in this to make sense, to get a better idea of the characters of isabel, david, john, raven and raphael... you might want to read mythics. anyway, thats all from me. enjoy!**

Chapter 1 Knock-Knock Jokes

She was dead. There was no doubt about it. Sure, for most teenage social outcasts, it was fairly easy to simply avoid the unwanted attention of the general public, but for Eris, it was no less than impossible… or at least improbable.

Eris stood comfortably, weight shifted to one side and hip thrust out to the side. Her skinny arms were folded over her chest, and her bright sapphire eyes were alight with passion. What could she say? There was an amusement to scaring people. There really was.

It was only in instances like this one- the one where she was about to die- that her amusement backfired.

"Now, boys," she said, calmly business-like. She found that a distracted bemusement was the best way to handle situations like this. The whole 'I know something you don't know' air was infuriating for those at the receiving end. "What are you hoping to gain from this? If you want a laugh, you could have just asked me. I know plenty of knock-knock jokes."

Eris's path to her next class was being road-blocked by four in-crowd-khaki-pant-robots. It started with a few catcalls and trivial appearance comments (in their defense, her appearance was very easy to comment on), but now they were blocking her path. Whichever way she went, they would halt her process with a small push and another endearing comment of 'fast and hard' or 'janitor's closet'.

In a weird way, she should be honored. Only her first day at Meyers and already the guys were hanging off her. Literally.

She peeled herself away from Will, who was in the process of clinging to her shoulder and mock-drooling uncomfortably close to her ear. "Aw, come on," Will whined. "I know knock-knock jokes, too."

She rolled her eyes. There had to be a way to solve this problem without pointing to the staircase like a dork and saying "Hark, a teacher calls!" She attempted once more to simply navigate around the four, but it was hopeless. They were like vultures. Or leeches. Or better yet, tapeworms. The lower she went on the food chain for these four, the better.

"Well I know something better," the other said. She couldn't recall his name. It might have been Chris. Or Matt. Possibly. "Its called hair dye. Take me under the sea, little mermaid."

Once again, all Eris could do was roll her eyes. It really wasn't her fault. She never asked for dark sapphire blue hair (giving her an incredibly irking mermaid-esque appearance)… or to come to a school that had a rule against wearing bandanas. Shit happened. What could she do?

An idea flickered in her brain. Well, if bemused distraction didn't work, there was always option B. She let the emotion fill her first, willing tears to begin pricking her eyes. Her face crumbled from cool and structured to something bordering stark raving mad. "You don't understand! They watch everything I do! They'll know, they always do! Save me from them, oh please, save me!" She was sobbing uncontrollably, clutching the shirtfront of Chris/Matt and reaching out with her other hand to whoever was close enough to reach. Will was the lucky candidate. She held his face in her hands, gripping it tightly with her long narrow fingers. "They're talking to me now. Right now, saying things to me. Bad things."

She never saw four in-crowd-khaki-pant-robots run so fast in her life. Eris smiled, wiping the excess tears from her face and putting the emotions of Insanity and Remorse back in a box for later. Scaring people really was fun. And it came with perks. "That fixed that problem."

Eris tried- she really did- to blend in wherever she went. But for God's sake, she had blue hair! She was what her doctor called a genetic anomaly. For her entire life she had had straight brown hair. Very brown. Very normal. Then suddenly, on her thirteenth birthday, it started changing colors.

The transformation was gradual, starting with a few highlights but steadily becoming more solid. By the week after her birthday, Eris had a head of very vivid blue hair. She and her mother had tried everything, hair dye, bleach… even shaving her head over summer vacation to see if it would grow back brown again. Nothing worked. After four years of this, she pretty much accepted that her freaky blue hair was going to be a permanent catalyst of ruining her life.

Her eyebrows and eyelashes were blue, too. How weird was that?

If it wasn't for the hair color, she could be like everyone else. She was tall and skinny- she liked to say she had the body shape of a grasshopper, all legs and no curves- with a long- giraffe's- neck and wide – deer in the headlights- eyes. She had pale Irish skin that would never ever tan (It reddened magnificently, though), and her hair, her weird freaky blue hair, was cut short. The less of it, the better.

Eris drudgingly continued to her next class, in full mind to take a nap after such an extraneous exercise of escaping imminent death. She was disappointed to find that trig was not a subject she could sleep through. In all honesty, she wasn't sure if she should even be allowed to blink through it. More information crawled on the blackboards by the second! By the end of that class, she was more than willing to simply give up on the day. Unfortunately, she still had to survive lunch.

**ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

Raphael Alverez kept a very close eye on his next subject. There were advantages to this one, the primary one being that she didn't know she what she was. He had enrolled into Meyers High to keep a close eye on her, hacking through the school's computer network to give himself the exact same schedule as this Eris Solomon. She was unusual. While Mythics always tended to seem ascetically like their second shape (Raphael had a rather sharp, demonic look himself, but he liked to think it made him look dashing), Eris simply could not blend in. She had blue hair, for crying out loud. If her human form was so distinct, the possibilities were endless of what her Mythic form was.

There was another question he really wanted answered. What kind of Mythic was she anyway?

Mythics were humans that somehow, over the course of time, inherited the recessive gene of a mythological creature. Even if someone carried the Mythic gene, though, it didn't automatically ensure him or her a second form and paranormal abilities. For some reason, the gene only activated itself if the child was born on a thirteenth day of the month, and even then it wouldn't show itself until the thirteenth birthday. (Yes, the gene happened to be partial to the number thirteen.)

Raphael had extensive resources, not to mention he was incredibly intelligent. He knew where to dig up dirt. He knew that an average of ten children with Mythic blood were born each year. Of those ten, only an average of seven or eight of those were born on a thirteenth day of a month. Of those seven or eight, only about five made it to their fourteenth birthday without committing suicide.

Being a Mythic was not easy. After living the first thirteen years of a life under the impression that everything is normal, a kid could wake up one day and discover he had wings, could hear people thinking… could create horrific monsters when he got angry. Anything. Secrecy is an unspoken must, for no one really knows if it is real or if it is all an illusion.

Raphael, a Controller, knew for a fact that it was very very real. In the world around him, there were hundreds of Mythics not even aware of the capabilities of their powers, and he meant to pick every last one like ripe fruit.

Unfortunately though, his network wasn't stretching quite as far as it had a year ago, before his chase for Isabel had lead him into a very important learning experience. Don't let Mythics work together! They will beat you, no matter what. A Controller could only control so many Mythic minds at once, and it was always more difficult with the threat of snake bites, immortalized stone, ensnaring songs and super-strength.

Raphael jerked himself out of his thoughts when he noticed Eris walking into the bathroom. Was she insane? Or stupid? Or both? Even if she didn't know she was a Mythic, she should have the instinct to stay away from mirrors. Mirrors showed their second form, and anyone in sight of the mirror would see it as well. So much for secrecy.

He suddenly wished he had Siren's power of will control. He could easily bend the wills of any watchers to simply not want to see him, and could walk into the girl's bathroom to see Eris's reflection. Unfortunately, as a Controller, he could only control Mythic minds, and then only if they were in their second form.

He really wanted to know what exactly Eris was.

This left him with only one other option. Slow and painstaking observance. Mythics generally had traits born from their second form. He himself packed a bit of a temper, a side affect to the perk of controlling furies whenever he got pissed off. Isabel had a weird, almost unnatural, flexibility, while Raven could jump higher than anyone he had ever met. David, well super-strength came with a downside, and it was called clumsiness. All he had to do was watch Eris long enough, and there was bound to be some distinguishing trait that characterized her Mythic form.

Eris left the bathroom, tucking her chin length blue hair behind her ears. Raphael tried, just for laughs, to control her as she was, but his powers slid off like roller blades on ice. She was definitely human right now. That much he could be sure.

And he would need to befriend her. A year ago, he could have had his people do that for him. How annoying!

Raphael's mind swung back to his schedule as he tried to recall were Eris was going, and thusly where he should be. Lunch. Perfect.

**ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

_Ignore them,_ Eris ordered herself, walking to a discreet table at the back corner of the cafeteria. Her mom had told her she needed to at least try to make friends today, since first impressions counted for so much in highschool. She spotted Will, Dill, Till and Bill (or whatever those robots names were), and gave a silent groan. Yeah, first impressions lasted all right. She might as well be walking around with a psycho sticker on her forehead, because that's how she made her first impression.

She had already caught two girls blatantly staring at her. She wanted to do something spontaneous to give them something to stare at, but that would be against her better judgment.

But then again, she wouldn't want to disappoint them.

Slowly, she rolled her dark sapphire blue eyes, but instead of returning them to a normal position, she crossed them dramatically. Then, with one eyes still pointed at an awkward angle at the bridge of her nose, she rotated the other one freely back and forth, unaccompanied by it's pair. Then she switched, crossing the other eyes and rotating the previously crossed one back and forth.

Correcting her vision, she gazed solemnly at her audience. They instantly looked away, but their eyes continued to flick in her direction, seeing what else she would do. They had alerted also other girls at their table of Eris's show. Well, who was she to keep them waiting?

She dropped her jaw slowly, forming it into a perfect 'o' of undiluted terror. Then she snapped her mouth shut, and grinned broadly, closing her eyes in her exuberance. Slowly, her tongue slithered out of her mouth, and she adapted a blank expression, her tongue lolling haphazardly at the side of her mouth. She had the sudden urge to giggle helplessly, for now she had close to twenty people watching her, but she resisted as she continued making faces.

Just as she was about to see if she could touch her tongue to her nose, she heard a voice behind her. "Knock-knock."

She spun around, her tongue still probing for boogers as she tried to make it reach the tip of her nose. She closed her mouth, a blush creeping to her cheeks. "Um… whose there?" She really hoped he wasn't one of the Clones, or she would have to come up with a new way to scare him off.

"Hai'Iwanna." He didn't look like a Clone. He was dressed all in black, but not gothic-black. More sharp, business-like black. He had pale skin and messy black hair, and his eyes were a blue so light, they seemed almost colorless. His brow was slightly wrinkled, as if he was concentrating on something. Well, it was just a knock-knock joke. If he needed to concentrate so hard on a knock-knock joke, he was probably a little slow.

"Are you Hawaiian?"

He rolled his eyes. "Answer it right."

Eris sighed. "Hai'Iwanna who?"

"Hai'Iwanna meet you." He held out his hand for her to shake, and she did so, all the while thinking _he's definitely slow if he shakes hands in high school._ "My name's Raphael Alaverez. What's yours?"

It was probably a joke. In about ten seconds he would be surrounded by his little chummies, all slapping him on the back and laughing thoroughly at her. Still, she was desperate for human conversation that didn't include 'under the sea' or 'bonnie baby blue', so replied, against her better judgment. "I'm Eris. Eris Solomon."

**oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

Here was a second where Raphael wished he were an Oracle. John Li, the only Oracle he was acquainted with, had a knack for reading people's emotions. Unfortunately, Raphael had no such talent. He sensed misgivings and distrust from Eris, but he kind of expected that. He wanted to get in deeper, though. "So, is this seat taken?"

"Well, my audience might be a little disappointed that you've halted their entertainment, but yes. The seat's free." She spoke lightly, but confidently. He cursed inwardly. He was hoping she would be an easy one, like when he first met Isabel, before she went psycho-freak on him for controlling her. His theory was that she would be a little self-conscious and insecure because of her odd hair color. Apparently he was mistaken.

"What audience," he asked, taking the seat beside her and placing down his lunch tray. Looked like something that might resemble a meat-like substance with a side that could be pirogues but was probably potatoes. At least, he hoped it was. Groaning, he opened his carton of chocolate milk, the only safe looking thing on the tray.

"The Barbies, over there at the far table. They've been staring at me for a while, so I decided to give them something to stare at." She over-turned her brown bag (she brought her lunch! Edible food!) and out toppled three sandwiches, an apple, a yogurt and a large bottle of water. He raised his eyebrows and she shrugged, nonchalantly. "I'm hungry." She looked at the amount of food she had, and shrugged again. "Okay, so I'm really hungry."

"So the Barbies were the reason for this," Raphael asked, and tried to get his tongue to touch the tip of his nose. It was harder then it looked. He would need to resolve that.

Eris laughed easily and unwrapped her first sandwich. "You're mocking me, but I really don't mind. And the trick to it is biting your tongue to make it stretch farther."

Rapahel tried again, and found that he was able to do it. That pleased him. He picked up his spork (Why couldn't he just have a fork AND a spoon?), and tentatively placed it in the potato/pirogue/question mark surprise. One taste and he realized he had been wrong about the nature of his lunch. They weren't potatoes, they were carrots. White carrots?

He realized that Eris was giving him a bemused look, her electric eyebrows raised. "How's it taste?"

Raphael was beginning to get angry. He shouldn't have to be dealing with this crap right now. He should have his people doing this dirty work so he could start working on frying the big fish. Now, he couldn't even eat a proper lunch. His fingers tightened around the plastic spork, and it took all of his will-power to banish the lingering sense of furies in his mind.

"I'll trade you." Eris's voice penetrated his thoughts, distracting him from his anger. His anger tended to be dangerous, and he was oddly grateful.

"What?"

"I'll trade you," she repeated. "My sandwich for the rest of your chocolate milk."

He looked at his milk container doubtfully. "There's not much left," he admitted. He could really go for one of those sandwiches, he didn't even care what was on it.

She rolled her eyes, and as if reading his thoughts plucked the empty carton of milk from his tray and replacing it with a seran-wrapped sandwich. "Oh, do shut up." She tipped the last of the milk into her mouth, the corners of her mouth puckering. Raphael tried hard to suppress a grin. Apparently, she wasn't very fond of chocolate milk.

"How's it taste," he asked, innocently.

She licked her lips dramatically and gave a refreshed sigh. "Fabulous. How about the sandwich?"

Raphael took a hearty bite and almost laughed at the pleasure of real food in his mouth. He stopped himself just in time. Imagine how embarrassing that would be! Laughing without a purpose, as if he was actually her friend. "Peanut-butter and banana. Delicious. Thank you."

She shrugged. "I don't like banana."

"But you love chocolate milk." He couldn't help it. I mean, obviously she liked banana if she packed it in her own lunch, and obviously she didn't like chocolate milk since she was about to spit it out when it entered her mouth.

Eris ignored him. "You got a nickname?" She was plowing through her apple like there was no tomorrow, probably trying to get the taste of chocolate milk off her tongue.

He wanted to correct her; since the proper syntax would be 'do you have a nickname'. He decided against it, though. "No, why?"

"I don't know. Raphael seems like such a mouthful to say all the time. If you were playing a ball game or something, and the ball was coming your way, by the time someone said 'Raphael, heads up', the ball would have already bonked you on the top of the head."

_Bonked?_ He made a mental note to look up a synonym to that word. "Well, a girl I once knew used to call me Rafey. Does that count?"

She was silent a moment, seemingly turning the phrase over in her head. "Was she your girlfriend?"

Now he couldn't help it. That bubble of laughter that had been threatening to burst ever since he had introduced himself with that first knock-knock joke, exploded. Isabel, his girlfriend? That was rich! Especially since she only called him Rafey when she was about to have a snake bite him, or turn him into stone. A pity Raven had adopted the same habit. He had liked her at first.

**oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

Eris's brow wrinkled. She had expected it sooner or later, but she had hoped she would be wrong. She knew it was all a joke, and that Raphael, or Rafey or whatever he wanted to be called, would lose his calm, friendly demeanor, laugh in her face and join his friends. She was sure she had a sign that said 'unlimited laughs, on me' pinned to her back. Painted in neon colors. With flashing lights. Yea, flashing lights for sure.

Why wouldn't he just shut up? I mean, sure it was funny (if the joke wasn't on you), but this was just excessive. "You don't have to be rude," she muttered, her cheeks heating up in anger. She wanted him to leave, but given that he was currently choking with laughter, flecks of sandwich (her sandwich!) still in his mouth, she decided it would be better if she left. "I'm glad to have amused you."

She stood up, leaving her yogurt and water, her eyes darting for an escape. _Damn it, I am _not_ going to cry!_ There were tears pricking the back of her eyes, genuine ones from an emotion she hadn't meant to take out of the box. She needed to leave _now_.

There were doors to the stadium on the other side of the cafeteria. There would be tons of bleachers she could hide under. She ran.

"No, Eris! I wasn't laughing at you. I'm sorry."

She needed him to go away.

"You don't understand."

She needed to disappear. _Disappear_, she repeated in her head.

Not realized to her, as she pushed open the stadium doors, she did exactly what she wanted. As far as Raphael was concerned, she had disappeared from existence in less than a fraction of a second.

_Well, I guess I know what her power is,_ he thought, resisting the urge to start a little jig for figuring it out so fast.


	2. Chapter 2 Sib Wars, Jewelry Stores

**wow... three days and not one review. i'm depressed. this must really suck. i'm sorry! hopefully this chapter will make u laugh. if it sucks that bad, tell me! if you like it, tell me! if you think i should stop all continuations of my proffesion as a writer and drown my head in a toilet bowl, well, tell me! i might not listen, but u could tell me anyway. **

Chapter 2- Sib Wars and Jewelry Stores

She wasn't crying. That's what Eris told herself as tears continued to stream down her face. She knew she was being stupid, and Raphael had only done what she had expected him to do anyway, but that didn't make it hurt any less. It was the hair. It had to be. Sometimes she just wished it would go away!

She fingered at the vibrant colored strands. It was already reaching her chin in length. That was much too long. A cut would be in order soon, with bangs this time. Yea, she could hide behind bangs.

Her stomach grumbled loudly, and she groaned. Two sandwiches and an apple was not going to cut it. She wished she had thought to bring the yogurt out with her, although she knew she would want more than that anyway. She wanted that peanut butter and banana sandwich she had given away out of nothing more than sheer spontaneous kindness. She hated when she did that.

She briefly debated her next class. It was advanced chemistry, second year. She really didn't want to go. She did want to go home, though. Who would know the difference if she skipped? She sure wouldn't mind.

One very long half hour walk later, Eris was finally home. She knew she would be the first one here. Her mom wouldn't be back from work yet and her older brother had this weird habit of not wanting to skip classes. How weird was that. As for her dad… well, he was m.i.a for the last fifteen years. Go figure.

She unlocked the door and tossed her books on the table. Starting a new school in the middle of the fourth quarter was a really dumb idea on her mom's part, but no one had expected the fire in their last house. Now, almost a year later, they decided a new house would be much better than trying to piece together the blistered remains of their own home. Unfortunately, there was nothing locally except the half-rate apartment they had lived in immediately after the fire. Their only option was a cross-state move.

Everything still wasn't unpacked. If Eris had felt in a more considerate mood, she might have given her mom a hand and started organizing the boxes labeled 'kitchen'. Instead, she went out in the backyard and swung idly on a tire swing the old house-owners had left behind.

She heard the door open and close in the distance, and her older brother, Jason, soon intruded upon her miserable moping.

"You're here early," Jason commented, standing in front of her and holding the rope to the swing to stop it from moving.

"What can I say? I walk fast," Eris responded. "Now, if you'll just let me continue to sulk in my misery in peace." She waited for him to respond, or at least let go of the swing, but he did neither. She groaned. Jason was only one year her senior, but ever since the fire, he had become annoyingly protective about her. She had the sneaking suspicion it had something to do with the fact that both he and their mother had thought she was still in the house as it burned to the ground. Well, obviously she wasn't if she was sitting around now being miserable!

"I drove," Jason said. "How do you explain that?"

Jason was so normal! She envied him so. They had the same lanky body-frame and pale skin (though she had to admit the look passed much better on Jason then her), but his hair was brown. Dark mahogany brown. That lucky bastard.

Eris gave a small smirk. "You put the key in the ignition, and it starts up the Bucket. Then you put Bucket into drive, press down on the gas and go." Bucket was the name of Jason's car. Eris was currently saving up quarters to buy one of her own.

Jason glared, his hand tightening around the rope to the swing. "That's not what I meant and you know it. You skipped. On your first day, too. What happened?"

She rested her chin in the warm treads of the tire and attempted to ignore him. This was tricky, given that he was standing directly in her line of vision.

"It's the hair thing isn't it? When are you just going to let it go?"

"Just so you know, I'm not listening to you," Eris said, sweetly, a huge fake smile plastered to her pale face.

"I'll bet no one would make fun of you if your weren't so touchy about it-"

"Still not listening," she sang.

"And its going to be a long boring life for you if you don't-"

"La la la!"

"-at least try to make friends."

"Whhheeeehooooo, whhheeeehoooo," Eris screamed, mocking the blaring sirens of a police car. "Look out, Jason, it's the air police. Quick, stop talking so it doesn't look like your wasting oxygen."

He gave her a look that would have made most people cower, run, or simply wet their pants, but Eris wasn't most people. She grinned widely, which infuriated her brother even more. Pulling back on the rope of the tire swing, ignoring Eris's protests of "What are you doing!", Jason pulled the swing back as far as he could reach, the dropped it.

Eris screamed, clutching the rope for dear life as her back hit the tree trunk. "Ow!" Her back was apparently very bouncy, for she went flying again, only to hit the tree once more, this time her shoulder taking the brunt force. "Ow!" After that, she tapped steadily to a halt, giving her brother a glare that would have made most people cower, run, or simply wet their pants. Unfortunately, Jason wasn't most people. "This means war!"

She scrambled out of the swing, and bolted to the side of the house. Jason was steadily gaining on her. He was such a jock-brain! Finally, her weapon of choice bestowed itself. She whipped the cool green hose off the rack, one hand resting on the nozzle to turn the water on.

Jason backed up. "Now Eris, that's not fair." Her hand twisted the nozzle. "You don't really want to do this, do you?" She aimed the hose for his face. "Uh…" He never got another word out, for a jet of cold tap water had just hit his face, thoroughly soaking him in seconds. He bolted back to the yard, Eris following in his wake screaming, "Come back, you coward!"

Tired of running, Jason turned, taking the full blast of the hose by attempting to wrestle it off of her. Her grip was like iron, but he did manage to point the head at her face.

Then Eris, refusing to surrender to this battle of the never-ending 'sib war', stomped on her brother's foot. He swore, loosened his grip on the hose so she could hit him full on with a steady stream of water.

"Kids! I'm home!" Their mother, Lily, entered the abode, and hearing their voices out back, went out the backdoor to see what was going on.

Eris jumped away from her brother, and became suddenly fascinated with watering the grass.

"Hi, guys," Lily said, slowly, taking in her son's sopping clothes and her daughter's wet hair. "What are you doing?"

"Watering the flowers," Eris said innocently. Jason, whose arms were held out to his sides in an attempt to keep his cold t-shirt off his skin, said nothing.

"Honey, we don't have flowers," Lily pointed out.

"Did I say flowers? I meant grass. Yeah, they're having a drought here. Haven't had rain since-"

"Last night?" Lily had to try really hard not to laugh. But, it was hard. She looked to Jason, who was glowering for all he was worth at his baby sister. "Sib wars?"

He nodded. "Sib wars. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go change." He walked behind Eris, and with great deliberation tripped, pushing her forward with his hand as he did so. "Sorry, slippery over here."

She scoffed. "Traitor."

"Whimp."

"Pussy."

"Cry-baby."

"Jock-brain."

"Mermaid."

"Go!" Lily yelled in exasperation. As Jason walked up the porch stairs, his mother nudged his shoulder. "I think she won," she whispered as softly as she could.

He gave a grimace as Eris whooped in the yard. "Ha! I told you! Now who's the big-shot jock-brain?" She did a cartwheel to show off, but her sneakers ended up slipping in the mud, sending her on her back, squelching in her own personal mud-pit.

Now it was Jason's turn to whoop. He loved when these kind of problems fixed themselves. "Ha! I am!"

**ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

Isabel Noctrice, eighteen (though her birth certificate and personal records conveniently stated that she was twenty-one), opened the door to her jewelry shop in the warm California morning. Her style had completely altered over the last year. Her twelve months in the God-forsaken California heat had tanned her skin to a dark nutty brown. Her once dark chestnut curls had taken on a more reddish hue, and was cut to an unusually short length for her. Even her clothes had changed. Usually, she dressed for function and function alone. If she could run for her life in it, then it was the get-up for her. Now, she took to wearing hippie skirts, tank-tops, and water-color blouses. If anyone from her past life saw her dressed like this, they would probably die laughing before she even got the chance to kill them.

"Hey, Bella," came her associate, Julia's, voice. "Back from lunch already?"

Isabel hated being called any nickname associated with her whole name, but it was harder then she thought to legally change her name and erase all tracks of the previous one. So, she was called Bella by her employees (who, amusingly, all happened to be at least ten years older than her). "What can I say? I just couldn't stay away. Besides, the Goddess is coming in today. Everything has to be in ship-shape for her. How's the setup for her viewing room coming?"

Julia pointed behind her. "Mark's got it all covered. He's setting out the jewelry as we speak."

Isabel wanted to claw her eyes out. She really did. She discovered, due to a weird creative talent born from dance, contortions and near-death experiences, she had an unusual talent as a jewelry designer. In a year (yup, that's all it took) her business had boomed from a tiny corner pawnshop to a fabulous privately owned boutique that brought in the richest of the rich and the shiniest of the stars. Well, what could she say, gorgons had a knack for designing sparklies.

Unfortunately, privately owned jewelry boutique was a large step from the thrilling action she was used to, and she was bored! No, not bored. What was worse than bored? It was like her life had come to a complete standstill. Was it so much to ask for a jewel robber or a break in? Or even a hold up. She wasn't picky.

"Mark!" she snapped, going into one of the back viewing rooms to see how he was setting up shop. That was one of the things that got Bella's its fame. While most jewelers had a distracted sense to there customers, Isabel made sure that each customer received star treatment. A browser would always be treated with a coffee (in a real mug, not cheap Styrofoam). An appointment set up would get a private room set up with a table of refreshments, a line of jewels Isabel's well-picked employees chose from the over-phone interview analysis, and as much time as they wanted to gawk and stare at themselves in the mirror (sitting on a comfortable couch, of course), before they made their final decision. And they always bought something. No one walked out of her shop without something to prove they were here.

"I'm in here, Bella," Mark replied. He was setting up the jewels their cases, all closed. Isabel had trained each of her employees to know the exact setup of the jewelry, depending on their phone analysis. The trick was to start with something big and shiny to attract their attention, show them three or four other pieces that would be fair, look beautiful on them, to finish with a finale of the one true fit. And she'd be damned if her employees didn't know how to find it.

"Alright, what are you showing? Hit me."

Mark raised his eyebrows. He was the youngest, besides Isabel herself, at twenty-six, fresh out of design school. He had an eye for details, which was why Isabel employed him. He also had an enormous crush on his boss. "Where?" He winced at her glare, and got to business. "Alright, I'm starting with the Fontaine earrings. They're simple, but elegant, and since the Goddess said she had blue eyes, I figured they would be a nice place to start." He continued, listing through Isabel's creations until he came to the last one. "For the True-Fit, I thought the Medusa Choker would be it. I've seen her on T.V and she's very long necked. The Choker would accent that nicely."

Isabel nodded, impressed. The Medusa was, obviously, one of her favorites. She had hoped to hold onto it a little while longer, but it would rake in a pretty penny, and her rent was due. "You have learned well, Grasshopper. Now, as always you are…"

"Polite but personable," Mark answered for her. "Judge from her reactions just how friendly to be. And, as always, remember her name."

"Excellent. So can I trust you to take this one by yourself?"

Mark paled. He had never done a viewing by himself before. Either Isabel, Julia or Rodney was there to pick up the slack if he fell behind.

"Don't worry," Isabel said. "I wouldn't have offered it if I didn't think you were ready. Besides, I'm busy with some custom-made crap. Some Cleopatra wants an Egyptian headdress for a costume party." She rolled her eyes, as if it was the most annoying thing in the world to be creating something beautiful.

"How old are you again?" Mark asked.

"I'm twenty-one," she replied steadily.

"Are you sure?"

She raised her eyebrows. "I usually am. Why?"

He shrugged, a blush tinting his cheekbones. "You talk with the authority of a woman who has an entire life's worth of experience, but you can't be older than eighteen."

Isabel laughed. "I grew up between foster homes. I do have a lot if life-experience, and if I only looked eighteen, that's going to work nicely for me when I hit thirty." She straightened the silk tablecloth on the refreshment table, not because it was crooked but because she needed something to do with her hands. "Now, I have work to do."

"Wait, just one more question."

She rolled her eyes, starting to get annoyed. "What."

"How does a twenty-one year old manage to start her own jewelry company and have it succeed?"

"I eat my vegetables. Now, no more questions, tuck in your shirt, the Goddess is here."

The Goddess was a super-model whose pseudonym was Gigi. (Isabel thought that sounded more like a poodle's name, but kept that suspicion to herself.) She greeted her personally, then lead her into the viewing room where Mark was waiting, and let him work her magic. In the meantime, with Julia and Rodney holding up shop for her, Isabel went into her workroom to continue her new project.

They had won. She, Raven, David and John had all defeated Raphael and left him penniless, friendless (and homeless). Unfortunately, there was a downside. As Mythics, they were very powerful in their second form, but together they held more power then any one group of people should have. They were in danger of corruption, if not through themselves then through someone else. Everyone they became close to was in equal danger. They had to separate.

Siren had the power to control wills. With her gift, she changed the memories of anyone who knew them. Their parents never remembered having a daughter, their school teachers had no recollection of their years at the school. Nothing. Then Isabel went into their records and erased everything. They were officially four nobodies who needed to stay as far away from each other as possible. Isabel chose the west coast, simply because that's what her finger happened to land on when she closed her eyes and pointed at a map. John was somewhere in the far-east, trying to save the world or something like that, but quietly. Raven- or Robin as she was now being called- was a corps dancer at Joffrey, New York. David was struggling for a steady job in Maine. Currently, he was a waiter.

Technically, Isabel wasn't supposed to know this. She knew that none of the others knew where she was. She couldn't help herself though. She missed the other Mythics so much, there was days when it actually hurt her physically to think of them. At least if she knew where they were, she could pretend she was out there with them. Raven, that lucky thing, was probably having the time of her life at Joffrey. While she was sitting here, ordering around her three employees and two security guards like there was no tomorrow, the rest of them were perfectly content to live out their 'normal' lives.

Isabel carefully strung together jade beads on the end of a gold thread. She wasn't very good at being normal. Which really sucked, when she thought about it.

God, she missed David more than life. Her gentle giant. She thought it was sweet that Mark was attracted to her, but he could never be David, and that's all she wanted. To have him back once more.

"Hey Bella," came Isabel's monitor under her desk. Rodney was paging her. Rodney had to be her favorite employee. He was with her since the beginning, and had adopted a kind, almost fatherly air around her. She was still his boss, first and foremost, but he was also a shoulder she could lean on when it was just too much. After all, she hadn't even completed high school and here she was playing with the big boys out in the real world. I guess that could almost be considered normal.

"What's up, Rodney?"

"The monkey's in the box."

Isabel's heart soared. Finally excitement. The monkey in the box was code for burglary in progress. What fun! "Your status?"

"Storeroom. Julia is distracting him now."

"And Mark?"

"Still with the Goddess."

Isabel nodded. "Good. Make sure he stays there. I want a sale today. Is our guy armed?"

"Hand gun. Pointed at Julia. She's taking evasive actions as we speak." That was another important quality Isabel looked for in her employees. They had to be able to keep a cool head in a moment of crisis. If a burglary ever did take place, she didn't want anyone to get hurt. She also didn't want to lose any of her profits. If her people knew how to handle themselves in situation like this, she could protect all of her assets.

"Alright. I'm on it," Isabel said shortly. She could already feel stone forming on her tongue. She would have loved diamond, but that would be a little too obvious. A sapphire gun would have to suffice. "Wait for my signal. When I give the okay, you take him from behind. I'll push him to the storeroom door. I'll give Julia the heads-up."

"What's the signal?" Rodney asked.

"I'll take his gun. Bella out."

Isabel cleared her work away (she hoped this wouldn't take too long because she had a lot of work to finish), and went out the backdoor to the shop. Swinging around the front, she tried the glass door. It was locked, and Ski Mask was now pointing a shaking gun in her direction. She smiled at him, a warm, trusting hypnotizing smile that captured his attention as she calmly unlocked the door and reentered the store.

"Who are you?" she asked, calmly.

"Tell your girl to open up the jewelry cases. Do it or I'll shoot!" His hand was shaking on the gun. Isabel took this into account shrewdly. This man was in desperation.

"If you shoot her, then you will only anger me. If you anger me, I will not open the cases. And since I'm the only one who can open the cases, if you anger me you'll have wasted a perfectly good afternoon." She inched closer to him, but he backed up, waving his gun. He shot one of the security cameras. Of course, it was a fake, her real security cameras were well hidden, but he got his point across. He was very desperate.

"Why don't you tell me what's wrong," Isabel said. She had to calm him down to get closer to him. Her entire plan revolved around being able to turn that gun into stone and disarming him before Julia or Rodney realized what she did.

She circled him slowly, so that his back was to the storeroom door. She hit him with that same, strange hypnosis gaze from her flashing gray eyes. She was like a cobra, poised and ready to strike. Suddenly, without even realizing she was so close, her mouth dropped open, her gray eyes flashed and his gun felt unusually heavy in his hand. He never got a chance to deduce why, for her foot had quite literally flown from nowhere, knocking him squarely on the nose and making him stumble backwards into the waiting embrace of a sizable man with handcuffs. His gun was now in the girl's hand.

Isabel was back to giving orders in a moment's time. "Rodney, my office. Take him with you. Julia, make sure Mark and Miss Gigi are still okay. Then come immediately back here and take any walk-ins. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," Julia said. She was slightly pale from her encounter, but was otherwise unharmed, so moved to follow orders.

"And don't call me ma'am!" she shouted after her.

Two hours, several cops and a very pleased super-model later (she had taken the Medusa, a choker wreathed in tiny intricate snakes with icy diamond detailing for scales), Isabel was back in her office, taking the unfinished jade threaded gold band to complete the headdress. She had just picked up her tools when her intercom buzzed again.

"Hey, Bella." It was Mark this time.

"Yes, Mark," Isabel replied, trying not to seem too annoyed. The deadline for this headdress was Friday and she was still only half way done with a very intricate design.

"There's a call for you. Line one."

"I'm busy. You take it and pass my apologies."

"He insists. He says his name is John Li."

Isabel dove for the phone and pressed the mention line. "Hello! John? Is that you?"

She heard him laugh, and take in a deep breath. He was about to start talking fast. "Yea, it me. Are you going by Bella now? That's so weird. I can't see you as a Bella, you know. You're always an Isabel to me. I didn't change my name. I just realized since no one really knows me anyway, and Rafey kind of made it so that I can't really do anything anyway, it doesn't matter what name I go by. I'm still not getting anywhere, anyway. I hear Raven, I mean Robin, is at Joffrey. That's awesome isn't it? That's like the best ballet school in New York, right? And…"

Isabel was right. He was about to talk fast. And long. Dear God she missed him so much. Actual tears were pricking her eyes. "John! Why are you calling? We're not supposed to talk to each other." That was practicality talking. The part of her that really wanted to survive to see her nineteenth birthday. It always took over in situations like this.

"Oh don't worry. This is a secure line. A jewelry designer! You! I can't believe it. You're only eighteen and all of New York is talking about your work. Some actress chicky wore one of your earrings to the Tony's. Now everyone is trying to figure out how to get in touch with you. You do know you're supposed to be trying to blend in? I mean, take a look at your Mythology line. Its screams 'I-know-something-you-don't-know'."

She was laughing despite herself. John could do that. No matter what the situation, he could always make you laugh, just by being so damn innocent. It was a good thing this conversation was directed over hundreds of thousands of telephone wire, that way John wouldn't see the silent tears streaming down her face. Of course, there was the possibility that he would See it, but that wouldn't be her fault then. "So what are you doing? Last I heard you were working in a refuge camp in the Middle East."

"Yea I was, but I came back to the states two months ago. Been swinging around, hitchhiking a lot."

Isabel gulped. "Oh no! John, do you need money? You know I can get you some easily. Do you even have somewhere to live?"

"Sure… I have a little place." John was a terrible liar. For all Isabel knew, the little place could be a cardboard box on the side of the highway waiting for another car to pick up a hitchhiker.

"John! Why didn't you contact me sooner!"

"Look, I'm not calling about that," John interrupted. "I Saw something while I was overseas. And it was recurring, annoying as all hell really."

Isabel tapped her fingers impatiently on the desk. "I'm waiting."

"I Saw another girl, someone like us. And she was very close to our old friend."

Isabel's jaw dropped. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, he's at it again."


	3. Chapter 3 Strange Guests

**_UPDATE!_** **for those hoping to get their hands on Desert Rose, heres the status update.**

**A. Editing is still in process (groan), but it is still set to be released sometime this september or october (exact date forthcoming)**

**B. I;m in charge of cover art! woot! my friends doing some photgraphs for it and its gonna be awesome!**

**C. When it comes out, it won't be in a barnes and noble store near you, (yea, i kno. mucho annoying). u need to buy it online, or oder it from your barnes and noble dealer. if i get a lot of sales in that area, we stack the shelves and i come for a book signing. (really fun way to meet new ppl!)**

**D. buy the book so you can see the surprise ending. mwahaha! sequel up and coming as well!**

Chapter 3- Strange Guests

It was late on a Thursday night, almost eleven o clock. A year ago, Raven would have laughed herself silly if anyone said that eleven o'clock was late, but that was before she had to wake up at four thirty every morning to take the subway to Joffrey, her ballet company.

She sipped at her mug of chamomile tea, her feet twisted around the rungs of a chair. She would have loved to take her second shape of Siren and take to the skies for the night, but she knew that would be folly. Raven hadn't been in her Mythic form for an entire year, and there was no way she would blow her cover on some childish whim.

Her roommate, Tony, very handsome and very gay, gave her shoulder a quick squeeze as he walked behind her, getting his own mug for tea. "What's wrong, Robin, honey?"

Raven sighed. "Nothing, I guess. Just thinking."

He gave her a smirk through his tussled blond hair. "Your thinking about that boy again, aren't you?"

Raven's jaw dropped in mock insult, and she kicked him lightly under the table. "Tony! What are you talking about? I'm not seeing anybody."

"Oh, I know your not, but ever since we started being roomies you've been missing someone. I can tell. You say his name in your sleep. John something or other."

Her cheeks burned red with embarrassment. She was saved the pain of answering by a knock on the apartment door. "I'll get it!" She put down her mug and bolted to the door, swinging it open without even looking through the peephole. She really didn't care who it was. It could be Lucifer himself and she would welcome him into the apartment. Anything to get Tony to shut up.

Isabel was standing nervously at the door, looking different. Her skin was as dark as a nut and her clothes. Ridiculous! Raven couldn't really talk though. She had dyed her riveting red hair to a subtle strawberry blond, knowing that she would stand out less without the beacon her hair usually was, and altered her own neat, organized style to flashy sequined tank tops and short flirty skirts. That is, when she wasn't in a leotard and warm-ups for ballet.

"Hi, Raven," she said slowly, pushing her dark sunglasses onto the top of her head and revealing her unusual gray eyes.

Raven gaped, her mouth opening and closing in utter shock.

This actually caused Isabel to laugh. "Close your mouth. You look like a fish."

This seemed to jumpstart Raven's brain, and she scoffed. "Well, you look like a surfer's chick."

Isabel glared, Raven glared back, and then they both let out a high, ear-piecing scream of delight, hugging each other between hops of joy.

"Oh my God, your hair is ridiculous," Isabel said, still hugging and still jumping.

Raven laughed. "I know! I hate it! You're tan is so weird."

"I know! I hate it!"

More screams. More hops. Finally, Tony cleared his throat, more to stop that annoying girly scream then to actually get their attention. "Robin, honey," he implored. "Are you going to introduce me?"

Raven blinked a light threat of tears from her eyes- it had been so long since she had seen any of the Mythics, and their distance was one of the hugest sacrifices she had ever made- and turned to Tony. "Sorry, Tony. This is-" Raven paused, not sure what Isabel was going by now.

"Bella," Isabel said, holding out a hand. "Bella Daratelli." It was amazing how many new last names she could make in the course of a year.

"Italian?" Tony asked.

"Si, senor," Isabel lied.

Tony rushed up, ignoring her outstretched hand, and hugged her, kissing her soundly on each cheek. Isabel, too stunned to react, gave a nervous laugh. "Your welcome here, since we Italians are family." He noticed Raven was outside the bear-hug, and felt bad. "Come here, Robin. We'll pretend you're Italian, too."

Underneath this heart-warming reunion, Raven felt a glimmer of dread in the pit of her stomach. They had agreed, a year ago, not to see each other again. It was much too dangerous. They cut off their contacts with their old life; her own mother wouldn't recognize her if Raven stood right in front of her. Her songs had made sure of that. Isabel would be the very last person to breach this pact, for she knew first and foremost, survival was everything.

Raven tried to hint at Tony to leave them alone for a few hours, but he was much too preoccupied making fast friends with Isabel. Finally, through sheer frustration she shouted his name. "Tony! Do you mind?" He finally got the hint, and left for his room, muttering darkly as he went.

Raven looked Isabel up and down, carefully. Physically, she had changed her appearance a lot, but there was no hiding those striking gray eyes that could hold you entranced, like the eyes of a serpent. A stinking garden snake, that was all gorgons were. "This isn't a social call, is it?"

Isabel grimaced and shook her head. "I wouldn't breach the pact for a small reason. And I know, every second I spend here endangers us both, but the news is important. John contacted me the night before last. He," Isabel paused a moment when she heard a creak not far away. Tony. It was just Tony moving around. She had been surprised at first when she learned that Raven was rooming with a guy, and had planned to grill her thoroughly for it- what happened to her undying love for John?- but upon meeting Tony she realized she was wrong. Tony wouldn't be interested in Raven. She wasn't his type, or his gender.

Isabel raised her eyebrows at Raven and the other girl shook her head almost imperceptibly. She did not know the source of the noise, but she knew that Tony would have respected her privacy and not come out of his room. Sure, both of them were paranoid beyond human comprehension, but they preferred paranoia to death.

There was that creak again. It would have been handy if David were here, because his sense of hearing was the one that heightened upon his transformation. As it was, Raven had sight, and Isabel possessed the ability to taste the air. It was the best they had, since they could not change.

"Balcony," Raven mouthed, her eyes seeing past the dimly lit hall as if it were bathed in sun. He crept along the fire escape, dressed in black. There was a definitive bulge under his coat. "Male. Gun."

"Not Rafey," Isabel mouthed back. She closed her eyes, focusing on the taste of the man. Sweaty- that wasn't important- big- that was bad- and there was something else… a taste she didn't quite recognize but held a dangerous familiarity. She didn't like it. "Bad news."

They had seconds to come up with a plan. The idea was simple, run fast, but Tony was in his room, unaware that someone lurked just outside their apartment. Even if this man was after Medusa and Siren, he would not hesitate to hurt whoever got in the way. Isabel pointed to herself, then to Tony's room. Her motions would not be seen from the window. Raven nodded, the message simple. Isabel would protect Tony as Raven took care of their visitor.

"Make sure you plug your ears," Raven muttered, already standing up.

Isabel bolted for Tony's room, trying not to be disgusted as she leapt over smelly gym clothes to where he was dozing in bed. She placed a cool hand over his mouth, and then shook him awake. He looked panicked, but Isabel held her other hand to her mouth, miming silence.

As she removed her hand, Tony whispered, "What's going on."

"Burglar. Quiet." She rummaged in her pockets for the receipt from the coffee she had bought earlier, tore it into four strips and crumbled them into balls. Tony could see none of this. He only knew that when this strange girl pressed two pebbles in his hand and directed him to put them into his ears, he did so without question. There was something funny about her eyes. They seemed to stand out in the dark of the room, and they didn't seem like they would look quite as pretty if she were questioned.

Raven snuck along the sidewalls of the hallway, finally hiding behind the hall table. What was he doing? He was just standing outside the window, patiently, looking inside for signs of activity. In fact, he really didn't show any signs of threat, besides for the fact that he was carrying a gun outside her apartment window. Could this just be some normal peeping tom with a squirt gun? A part of her really wanted to believe that, but she had experienced too much in her last year of life to excuse it on something so simple.

She piped out an experimental note of song, without any power in it. She needed to see two things. If she was close enough for him to hear a song, and what his reaction would be if he was.

He turned suddenly to the voice, and grinned broadly. "Come on out, Raven. I just want to talk. I won't hurt you." His voice was slightly muffled from speaking through the glass, and he spoke with an unusual pitch to his voice. Either he was deaf, or he was wearing earplugs.

She cursed softly, and racked her brain for a new plan. There was just one. Get Isabel and Tony and run like the devil.

She needed something to distract the intruder first. An idea flickering in her head, she took a deep breath and let out a sharp ear-piercing shriek. The window shattered, exploding small bits of glass onto the strange man and distracting him long enough to run to Tony's room. He had a window. They could climb down the wall.

"News," Isabel said urgently, fishing the pebbles from her ears.

"Bad. We need to go."

"Shouldn't we call the cops?" Tony asked. He was shaking thoroughly now, quite literally scared witless.

"No Tony," Isabel said shortly, not bothering to explain. There was no time, and she could taste Raven's confusion and fear.

There was a safety mechanism on Tony's window, so that only the bottom portion tilted to the outside. This would not do. Viciously, Isabel spun, thrusting her heel into the center of the glass. It shattered on impact.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Raven asked, curious, despite herself.

She shrugged, and motioned Tony to start scooting along on the building ledge. She had started taking karate, ju-jitsu, and kun-fu a year ago. She had good legs, and found she enjoyed having yet another advantage over any attackers… besides, of course, stone glares and poisonous snakes.

Getting out alive, that was Raven's primary goal. As the three mismatched people scooted along the building ledge, sidling from window to window to get closer to the ground, there was no sign of their strange guest. They hit the cold alleyway, and ran to the street to hail a cab, en route to the police station. Isabel gripped Raven's arm as she was about to enter the cab after Tony. With a look from her friend, Raven felt an unmistakable wave of sadness wash over her. Tony was her friend, and for his safety, she couldn't see him anymore.

She leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear. "Tony, I'll see you later, okay?"

"Wait. Aren't you coming?"

"No, I have some stuff to do with Bella." She was softly singing between her words. Tony loved her voice, but had never heard her sing. Now that he did, he never wanted her to stop. As Raven closed the door and the cab driver drove away, Tony felt something being pulled away from him. The farther he drove from his apartment, the less he remembered the hawk-eyed petite girl with the stunning voice and her strangely graceful friend. In fact, by the time he reached the police station, he had trouble remembering why he was there at all. Something about a… robbery! Yea, that was it! Someone broke into his apartment. The one he lived in. Alone.

**ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

David Connor, or Conan Jones as he was so fondly called at this casual restaurant, hoisted three, four, five fully loaded trays onto one arm, balancing it precariously as he walked out of the kitchen. A child squealed in delight as he saw him. "Wow! Its like on cartoons! Do you see that, mom? Do you see it?"

The eleven year old boy's food happened to be on the top of the wobbly tower of food. "Chicken fingers?" David asked. The load was hardly anything to him, but he at least made the impression that it was. His second form was Minotaur. While he didn't have the ability to control wills, create diamonds or perform illusions, he was inhumanly- and conveniently- strong.

"That's me," the boy said, his jaw hanging open slightly. "How are you carrying so many trays?"

David smiled at the boy. "If you'll wait for me to drop off the rest of them, I'll tell you." The boy nodded eagerly, and David moved around the restaurant, dropping off plates of food at the appropriate tables.

Back at the kid's table, the boy was talking to his mom again. "I want to be that strong, mom. That way, I wouldn't need a car. I could carry one!"

The mother laughed and met David's gaze with a 'kids today' look. "Are you going to tell Tyler your secret?"

David nodded and knelt down to be eye-level with Tyler. "You see this woman here," he said to Tyler, nodding to his mom. "She's the one who can make you strong. See, she'll make sure you're strong in mind and heart. If you're strong in mind and heart, your body has nothing to do except be strong to catch up with the rest of you."

Tyler's eyes widened. "Really? Is that all?"

"Yup, that's all. Oh yeah, plus you have to eat your vegetables."

He made a face. "Yuck! I hate vegetables."

David gave a shrug. "You want to be strong, don't you?"

He nodded so hard, his head seemed liable to fall off his head. "Mom! I want broccoli for dinner. And carrots. And what's that weird purple stuff that turns mushy when you cook it?"

"Eggplant."

"Yeah, I want eggplant! Please mom! Pleeeeaaaase!"

As David walked back to the kitchen, he took one last glance at the mother. She had caught his stare and mouthed the words "Thank you."

As he opened the swinging door to the kitchen, another waitress, tray stacked with food, was walking out. They collided with a painful crash of breaking china and wasted food.

"Ow, ow, ow! Conan!" Bridget screamed. "You're on my foot! Get off!"

"Sorry, Bridget." He stood up, and helped her up. They both looked like the dinner she had just been carrying. "Spaghetti," he muttered, reaching out to slide a piece of pasta from behind her ear. He slurped it up. Sure, he had eaten an hour ago, but it was perfectly good food albeit it was now tossed over two very unfortunate bodies. "Not bad."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll clean this mess up and talk to the cook. You go tell tables two and three their dinner is going to be late."

Table two. A couple on a date. They had hoped to share the plate of spaghetti, like a freaky version of Lady and The Tramp. Oh, please. Table three. Oh, crap!

"John," David sputtered, quite literally at a loss for words. "What the- Holy crap!"

He gave a distracted smile. John Li was a weird one. Visually he was pretty normal; blue eyes with an Asian slant, fair skin and hair and a shorter height (but then, everyone was short compared to David), who had visions of the future and the ability to create illusions.

It took a moment for him to realize what the distracted smile was for. After a moment of glancing at David, he returned to watching three ketchup bottles very intently. "This is very important," he breathed, softly. "Who would win in a fight between Darth Vader and King Arthur?" David glanced over the ketchup bottles and saw two miniature figures behind them, one with a light saber and one with a sword. David took a seat.

"It's gonna be Vader. He has the cooler weapon."

John shook his head. "Nope. It's going to be Arthur. He has the heart."

It was like they hadn't just spent the last year pretending the other didn't exist. It was as if it was before they destroyed their previous life, and it was just two morons talking about who would win in a fight between who… of course, these conversations were much more interesting with John, who could create the battle in any size or situation.

Most unexpectedly, King Arthur raised his hands in a hold of the battle. "You fought well, my lord. Whose is the name of my opponent, for I wish to inquire as to your weaponry."

There was that sound, the one that Darth Vader always made, like he was talking while drinking a triple thick milk shake and trying to clear the phlegm from his throat. "I am Darth Vader."

"And who is your trainer?"

"I was trained by the Jedi Knights."

At the mention of knights, King Arthur deemed the battle properly completed, and the both plopped down on a haphazardly thrown straw and began talking.

John gave a disbelieving snort. "I don't believe this. You're supposed to be fighting! King Arthur on the Dark Side. Whatever happened to the Force?"

"That was unexpected," David muttered. John flicked his hand in disgust and the image of the two figures vanished. That's when it struck David as highly unusual that John just happened to plop into his restaurant, on a day he had happened to be working at a table where Darth Vader fought King Arthur had become Boy Scout Buddies. He thought about it again, and decided he was right. It was definitely weird. "Not that it's not good to see you, but, uh, what are you doing here?"

He grinned. "Funny thing. You remember Rafey, that psycho power-freak with the bad haircut. Well, he's back in action, and he's got himself a target."

David groaned. "Don't tell me Isabel is in trouble again!"

John shook his head. "No, actually Isabel's kept cover. She's not doing a good job of staying quiet, but then… none of us really are. I mean, look at me. I tried going over-seas to help at refuge camps and I ended getting kicked out into the desert cause of my visions. Satan worship or some other load of bull crap. And here you are, carrying a ton of trays all at once like it's a freaking Barbie doll and…"

"John!" David snapped. John was cool and all, but he talked a lot and really fast. The trait was usually one of the things David liked about him, it could make you laugh in any situation, but right now, all he wanted was the facts. "Point?"

"He's after a girl at your old high school. Her name is Eris something-or-other, but she has a really strange gift."

David frowned. He thought it a little shallow of John to say something was strange if his favorite pass-time was creating illusions of Spiderman and Batman in a battle to the death. "What is she?"

"She's a Naiad," John said. "A water nymph."

**thanks meris for all the help! love as always! and to the mysterious v (lack of a real name is rather irking), yea... i kno i should post these stories on fiction press but i'm too lazy to change everything and i have better reviewers on fanfiction anyway. so... what you gonna do! if it bothers you too much, well... you could pretend that yur reading this on fiction press. right? (nudges with elbow) eh, eh! okay, sorry. next chapter is a doosy, if i could just finish it. **


	4. Chapter 4 Let's Go Swimming

**if i ever gave any of my reviewers a review that they took offense to, i'm sorry. just thought i'd say that cus i got one girl P.Od at me for telling her to check her grammar and syntax before submitting a chapterm cus it takes away from the quality of the actual writing. (she's quite a good writer too, so its disapointing that she cant take critiques). and for all the people who fawn and gush over writers 'ooo its okay that u make a thousand and a half grammatical errors. we don't notice'. like hell you don't. we all speakand write the same language, so how about we all do it right.**

**yea... a little P.Od right now, but i'm updating cus i got some reviews. thanks sirenicgriffin for the your/you're typo. i;ve fixed it on the manuscript. and v-- dude, i dont know anyones name who starts with v! ahh! my brain is melting! meris, u rock so much! awsome like a possum... or whatever other animal u prefer that rhymes with awesome. i dont kno any! and all my other reviewers (and theres not that many for this story. still wondering if it totally blows) thanks and enjoy!**

Chapter 4- Let's Go Swimming

Eris was very busy cleaning the mud from her skin when the door bell rang. Seeing as she was kind of barricaded in the bathroom with a sudden rearrangement of boxes (she would need to be very clever to get out of here without breaking something), she felt her stupid brother could answer the door. "Hey, stupid brother!"

"Yes, stupid sister," Jason replied, shouting from the ground floor bathroom.

"Get the door, you moron!"

"No! I'm still wet!"

"I'm still muddy!"

Finally, Lily joined in the chorus of screaming conversations throughout the house. "Stop fighting, you two! I'll get it!" She had to do a little bit of fancy foot work to get to the door (the boxes! They bred!), but answered it without injury.

"You should really consider an intercom system," the boy at the door said, seriously. Lily couldn't help but agree. "Is Eris around?"

Lily was dumbstruck. Eris didn't have many friends to begin with, but after that year when her hair changed color, she didn't have friends at all. It was quite shocking that this boy had come to make a house call after only one day of school. The positive side of her wanted to be elated and think the best of this character. Lily wasn't stupid though, and was slightly suspicious. "And who are you?"

He stuck out his hand, which Lily shook, slowly. "My name is Raphael Alverez, ma'am. I'm from Eris's school."

Lily, deeming this explanation acceptable for the time being, nodded, and turned away from Raphael. "Eris!" she called up the stairs. "Someone's at the door who wants to talk to you!"

"Who is it," came her shouted reply from the bathroom. She had changed her clothes, only to realize she had missed spots in cleaning herself off and had to start all over again. She would be better off just taking a shower, but didn't know where the shampoo was.

"Raphael!"

There was silence a moment, then bounding footsteps, followed by a loud crash. "Ow! Mom! What's with all the boxes!" More footsteps, another crash, and finally Eris clambered down the stairs, favoring one leg for the other was forming a very dark bruise on the knee. She looked hassled, annoyed… and muddy. Her blue hair was caked in earth, sticking up at places like a cheap gel.

Raphael looked at Lily. "Really, really should consider an intercom system."

Eris scoffed. "Like your family is much different." She glanced at her mother, who is glaring at Raphael. She could have had an 'I don't trust you' sticker on her forehead and be no less conspicuous. "Goodbye, mother," Eris said forcefully.

Lily sighed. "I'll be in the kitchen."

After she left, Eris hooked her arm around Raphael's and lead him outside. "There are ears everywhere. No where is safe."

Raphael was confused for a moment about this statement, until he noticed a face in the window. "Your brother?"

She winced. "Yup. Jason has been a little, uh, protective of me. So, what do you want?"

"What do you mean, what do I want?"

She growled, her pale cheeks heating up in anger. She began methodically pacing the front yard, looking behind the bushes and flower beds, and peering into the windows of the parked cars on the street. "Where are they hiding, Raphael. Come on, I'm not stupid. I have to give you credit for the most perseverant group of jokesters I've encountered, but you're not the best. Not even close." She began ducking under cars, to see if anyone was hiding underneath.

"No, it's not like that. There's no joke."

She raised her blue eyebrows. "Oh really?" The roof. It had to be the roof. Eris had discovered on the first day moving here that the back porch was designed quite ideally to reach the roof, as long as she could do a pull-up. She began to climb up.

"What are you doing," Raphael yelled, sounding slightly panicked. He rushed up behind her and grabbed her wrists to prevent her from reaching the gutter to pull herself up.

"Ah, so it is the roof. Come on down, guys. Joke is off. I don't know what you were trying to do, but it won't work now."

Raphael groaned. This was really frustrating. He wished she would change into her Mythic form so he could get into her head already, but he was still clueless as to what it was. Something to do with invisibility, which was pretty cool, but it would be so much cooler if he actually knew what she was. "Look, I just came to apologize. Are you hungry?"

"What?"

He realized he was still holding Eris's wrists tightly, her back resting lightly against his chest. She was a few inches taller than he was and that annoyed him. A lot. This close, he could see the violet and indigo highlights in her hair, like a blueberry had sneezed on her head. "Are-you-hungry," he said very slowly, as if speaking to a toddler who couldn't understand large words yet.

She turned around, glaring for all she was worth. "No tricks?"

"None."

She shrugged. "I want ice-cream. You're buying." She walked down the stairs and Raphael ran to catch up with her.

At the ice cream shop outside the school, Eris tapped her fingers eagerly against the window.

"How about a hot fudge sundae," Raphael suggested.

"I don't think so," Eris replied. "I don't like chocolate. I think a strawberry sundae would make me very happy though."

Raphael nodded, paid for a strawberry sundae and a chocolate cone, and took a seat on the picnic table. "You're not normal, you know."

Eris looked up from scraping the heavenly whipped cream from the top of the sundae. She was starving from not eating a full lunch, (only two sandwiches) but still managed to make a face at him. "And why's that?"

Raphael had never eaten an ice cream cone before, and the fact that no matter which way you licked would topple the ice cream over was annoying. Very annoying. He should have gotten a sundae. At least that came in a cup with a spoon. "You don't like chocolate, you make faces at cheerleaders, you don't mind that everyone thinks your crazy and what is the trick to eating this thing!" The last statement was in reference to his ice-cream, which was now leaning like the tower of Pisa.

Eris put down her sundae and took the cone from Raphael's hand. A few deft licks and the ice-cream was replaced in the center of the cone, but Eris was left with the terrible taste of chocolate in her mouth. "Eeeech," she screamed, her tongue hanging out of her mouth that still had the criminal ice cream on it. She got a napkin, wiped it off her tongue and then spit. It traveled a pretty fair distance. "That's the second time I've suffered through chocolate for you. You're running up a bill."

"Here, I'll get it," Raphael said. He leaned forward and pressed his mouth against hers, tasting a mixture of chocolate and strawberries on her lips. It was oddly appealing. It lasted only a second, and Raphael pulled away. "Is it gone?"

Eris's pale skin was flushed even lighter, but she still had her wits. She put on a deeply thoughtful face, clicking her tongue in her mouth. "Nope. Still there. Want to try again?" Raphael leaned forward, but his procession was halted by Eris's hand. "Hang on a second."

He sighed. "What?"

"You're not normal either."

"Huh?"

She spooned a large amount of vanilla ice cream in her mouth, swallowed and continued. "You name still bothers me. Raphael. It's either a name for an Italian painter or…" She giggled suddenly.

"Or?"

"A Ninja Turtle. What were there names, again? Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael. So actually, you are an Italian painter and a Ninja Turtle, since all of the Ninja Turtles were named after painters. This, now that I think of it, is really weird."

Raphael scoffed. He liked his name. He didn't know what a Ninja Turtle was, but he could bet that he wouldn't like it if he found out. "Can I kiss you again, now?"

"No," Eris replied, smiling, shoveling ice cream in her mouth.

"Why not?" This was really out of character for him. Sure, he and Isabel had a short 'fling' back in the day, but that was more the power thing, testing how much control he had over her will. He was never really the type to become involved in relationships; they only got in the way. But here he was, flirting with this blue-haired chick who he really needed to make change into her second shape. It was a funny little world, especially now when he was craving once more to taste the chocolate strawberries on her lips, and she refused.

"Cause I don't feel like it now." She tipped the cup into her mouth, making sure every last drop of the sundae was accounted for, safe in her stomach. With a loud belch, which caused Raphael to raise his eyebrows, she grabbed his wrist, pulling him forward as she ran across the street. "Come on. Let's go swimming."

A brisk walk back to her house, she bounded through the house. "Hey! Stupid brother! Where are you!"

"My room!"

"Can I borrow the car?"

"No!"

"Why?"

"Because I said."

Eris gave a sweet smile to Raphael. "Would you hang on for a second? I'll be right back." Nimbly, she jumped over a pile of boxes and clambered up the stairs. "Jason, so help me, if you don't give me those keys I'm going to wrestle them from you."

"From my dead fingers," he taunted.

"Don't give me any ideas!" Eris entered Jason's room, where he was jingling the keys annoyingly in his right hand. "I could just tell mom to give me the car."

"She left to pick up the pizza. Where are you going?" Eris made a lunge for the keys, but Jason was too tall and simply raised his arm out of the way. "Not until you tell me where you're going."

"I'm going swimming. Is that a crime?" Another lunge. Another failure.

"With who?"

"None of your business."

He took in a deep breath, puffing out his chest importantly. The big brother speech was coming soon. She was sure of it. "Now, you listen here. I'm your big brother, and even though I hate you, I still have to watch out for- ow!" Eris had stomped on his foot, causing him to drop the keys in pain. She grabbed them and was bolting down the stairs before he could regain his composure. She heard him steadily bounding after her.

"Rafe, get to the car! Run, run, run!" Eris vaulted the banister as a way to throw her brother off, knowing he would be far too muscular to try such a stunt. She grabbed Raphael by the collar, who was standing in dumb shock, slammed the door in Jason's face and continued running to the car.

The Bucket roared to life as she stuck the key in, and Eris was happily riding down the street, watching Jason's face in the rear view mirror redden with anger.

"Is it like that at your house everyday?"

Eris adjusted the mirror and clipped her seatbelt. "Not always. Just when we're having sib wars."

"How often do you have sib wars?"

"Always."

Raphael laughed hard, and Eris realized that she liked his laugh a lot. Now that the thrill of stealing her brother's car was fading away, she could think about Rafe. (She had decided that Rafe would be his nickname, since Raphael was too darn long.) She kind of liked that he had kissed her, and that it was so purely random, but then he had to ruin it by asking to kiss her again. No one asks for a kiss. That was just stupid. It wasn't a very long one either, barely a second. If she was to rate it, she would give it a six. And that was if she discluded the fact that he tasted of chocolate.

"So all of this just to go swimming. Must be an amazing pool," Raphael commented, breaking into Eris's thoughts.

Eris was suddenly very conscious of the fact that she still had mud in her hair. She wasn't the type to get embarrassed, when you have blue hair for four years of your life, this happened, so it was odd that this struck her now. "Well, stealing the car was just a way to get back at my brother for making me fall in the mud. I'll pay for that later, when he eats all the pizza. We could have easily taken bikes to the creek though. We'll have to get out and walk soon anyway." No sooner had she finished saying this then she pulled over, and got out of the car. "Come on. There's a bit of a hike."

Trudging through the nameless forest, in the spring air that was comfortable in the sun but was making her shiver under the cover of trees, Rafe hit her with another question. "So, answer me this. How does a girl who just moves to the area know where a secret creek in the middle of the woods is?"

She shrugged, pulled a flexible branch back and released it so it hit Raphael in the face. "I went exploring."

A fifteen minute walk where they kept a meaningless conversation alive, interrupted by small spurs of mischief from Eris, and they arrived at the creek. The best part was where the creek met the cliff and formed a water fall with a deep pool at the bottom. The only problem, it was a long drop to get to the pool. Eris was already taking off her shoes.

"Wait a second. How are we going to get down there?"

Eris rolled her eyes. "Well, you could be a little girl and climb down, or you can jump."

Raphael gulped. "Jump? Down there? Have you ever done it before?"

"Nope."

"So what makes you think its deep enough?"

"I just know, alright. Here, take your shoes off, and take my hand." She gripped his hand in her hers as they teetered on the edge of the cliff. "On three, okay? One, two…"

Raphael gave a silent prayer that his sins wouldn't choose this moment to be revisited upon him. "Three."

They jumped, screaming through the air, Eris in exhilaration and Raphael in just plain terror, hitting the water with a painful smack on their knees. Eris stayed under a moment, opening her eyes and watching Raphael's pale legs kick the water. He was going too fast. He would get tired soon.

She broke the surface, wiping her hair from her face. "Wasn't that awesome?"

He laughed, treading water for all he was worth. "Terrifying is more like it. How deep is the water?" His teeth were chattering. Eris frowned. The water seemed pretty comfortable to her.

"I don't know. Let me check. Want to come with?"

"Can't our ears pop if we go too deep," Raphael asked. He was getting tired fast. A slow swim downward would help sync his heartbeat.

"That's just an old wives tale. Hold onto my shoulders if you're scared. I swim fast."

Raphael wasn't scared, but he was tired, and it seemed like Eris knew it. The break would do him well. "Okay, but I'm not scared." He swam behind her, grasping her bony shoulders. He was too close to her again. The smooth, slippery texture of her skin was messing with his brain functions. The water was causing her loose t-shirt to float around the surface, letting Raphael catch glimpses of her very flat abdomen. Remarkable, given her food intake. He really wanted to kiss her again. No, not only kiss her. He wouldn't stop until he had all of her, right here in the middle of the pool.

"Take a deep breath," Eris ordered, then started swimming downward.

She loved swimming. It was the only time where she really felt right with herself. She could see underwater just fine, and her freakishly long hands were suddenly incredibly useful for swimming faster. She could hold her breath for quite a while, as well.

Raphael's grip on her shoulders, now that was something to be aware of. He tried to kick with her at first, but soon realized he was totally out of sync with her rhythm and stopped. She was becoming uncomfortably aware of just how close he was, even this deep underwater. She exhaled a little, the bubbles of air floating like crystals to the surface. His right hand move from her shoulder and began stroking her neck, inching along the skin as if searching for something. What the hell?

Finally they reached the bottom. If Eris dared to guess at the depth, she would probably say it was around twenty three feet, give or take. She pushed off quickly. While her air supply was still quite comfortable, Rafe would probably be feeling the pressure on his lungs.

Breaking the surface, she turned to Raphael. "Twenty-three feet." He was smiling broadly. And there was something behind that smile, too. Something malicious. Her instincts always felt sharper in the water, and right now, her instincts were screaming at her to get away. Fast! Raphael had quite suddenly changed, and she didn't want to know what was going on behind that creepy grin. "Uh… I got to go." _Swim for the cliff, swim for the cliff. _Why wasn't she moving? She was treading water, like normal, but she really wanted to swim for the cliff. There was a fissure in there that she could easily hide in.

"I agree, Eris. I think its time that we go. But just one quick test, first. Stop swimming." The insane question was repeated in her head, as if a Raphael-echo existed in her brain. And, just as insanely, she stopped treading water, her head dropping just below the surface. This was very seriously wrong.

_Okay, now go back to the car._ That wasn't her voice in her head. Was she going crazy? It sounded like Raphael! "Come on, Rafe. Let's get going before my brother eats all the pizza." _I don't want Rafe to come with me! He's scaring me! I want to go alone!_

But for some strange reason, her body wouldn't listen.


	5. Chapter 5 Just Dreaming

**this might be my last update in a while. i have two chapters typed after this, but i probably wont have time to edit. i'm going to england, ireland, scotland and wales! next week! YAAAAYYY! so yea, i'll be gone for three weeks, so dont expect any updates during that time. lol. excitment! **

**overall goal for the UK... find daniel radcliffe. (evil laughter)**

Chapter 5- Just Dreaming

Eris had it all figured out. There was only one plausible explanation for this. And by this, she meant all of this, from having a Raphael-echo in her head, to her body undergoing strange changes in the past ten minutes. She was dreaming. It was as simple as that. When she had gone to jump off the cliff, she must have bumped her head, and now all of this was just a freaky dream. She hoped someone thought to wake her up soon.

The Raphael-echo was starting to get on her nerves. She still acted normally, tripping him in mud and hitting him with tree branches, but whenever Rafe-echo sounded in her head, she did whatever he said without question. She decided this was symbolic of her fear that Rafe was just using her for a quick fling, ready to drop her when she served her purpose.

The changes in her body, that wasn't so easy to rationalize in her dream. Her hands for one had formed webs between the fingers, and her skin had taken on a slippery, rubbery texture, reminding her of porpoise or dolphin skin. Her eyes felt wider, and the urge to blink wasn't nearly as insistent. In fact, she hardly had to blink at all. Plus there were the scales. From her thumb, down to her wrist, she had a light dusting of iridescent blue scales. Touching the back of her neck and she found more of the scales, blending all the way up into her hair. Was there an explanation for all this? Of course! Never eat chocolate before being knocked unconscious.

The real Eris would have punched Rafe at the car. His hands were all over her, examining her fingers and testing the strength in her legs. He slowly ran his fingers through her hair and along her neck, and she knew that Dream-Rafe was thinking about a little more than webbed hands and fish scales. Real-Eris would have punched him, but given this was a dream or hallucination it didn't bother her much. She could have even enjoyed it if Rafe-echo would stop telling her to hold still. The nerve!

"You know, this is a little uncomfortable for me," Eris said, trying to disregard the fact that there was quite literally no space between Raphael's body and hers. Given that she was pinned against the car, and Rafe-echo was telling her not to move, her discomfort was hard luck.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to figure out what you are. You had gills before when we were underwater. It was quite incredible. Your appearance hasn't even changed much, which explains why you don't need to avoid mirrors." He was thinking hard, ignoring the effect that Eris's breath rustling the hair behind his ear did. She wasn't a mermaid. There was no such thing, and even if there was, she would be focused around Greek mythology. There had to be some kind of underwater creature loosely described in some tale. Unconsciously, his mind flitted to the Odyssey, which included all the major creatures of myth. Water creature. Water nymph. Naiad. He stepped back, making Eris turn in a circle so he could examine her again. "Naiad," he muttered out loud. She hadn't turned invisible today at lunch. She had changed her skin to match the surrounding colors, like a chameleon or a squid. Breathing underwater would be another obvious gift, but there might be something else. One other thing. If he was right, he was going to be very happy.

"Eris, do you see that puddle?"

"I'm not blind," Eris muttered, getting annoyed. She really wished she would just wake up already. It was beginning to scare her that Rafe-echo could make her do anything. Even in her dream, she knew this was terrifying. But it was just a dream. Whatever he was talking about now, mirrors, naiads and puddles, was just the nonsensical ramblings of her semi-insane mind. Well, possibly fully insane, but she hoped she hadn't reached that point so soon.

"Call the water to your hands," he ordered, seconding the order by Rafe-echo.

She gave a very dramatic exasperated sigh. Well, if it was a dream, she might as well have a little fun while she was in it, since it looked like she wasn't waking up soon. She held out a hand and, almost as if she were calling a dog, beckoned the water to her. Amazingly (she was starting to like this dream), it floated in the air and hovered over her hand, a swirling twisting mass of muddy liquid. "Oh dear God and heaven," she muttered slowly, sapphire eyes transfixed on the floating water.

"You said it."

She moved her hands a little, and the water began to take a shape. It formed a sculpture of Raphael's head, talking mockingly at Eris, as if giving orders. She flicked her hand again, this time forming a dolphin jumping through ocean breakers.

"How are you doing that?" Raphael asked.

"I'm just asking it to." Realizing she had just gone a full fifteen minutes without doing something to Rafe, she made a pushing motion with her hands. The muddy water splashed over his face and fell to the ground. Eris giggled.

Raphael smiled broadly, not able to contain his excitement. She could control water! Forget the old Mythics. With a power like this, their abilities were cheap party tricks. "Eris, I do believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Eris made a rather amusing look, halfway between desperation and exasperation. "Can I wake up now?"

* * *

Isabel never thought she'd see him again. David Connor, two first names, was a part of her old life. 

Her life could be easily broken into sections. For the first thirteen years of her life, she was normal. After running away from her family when she learned of her Mythic form, she spent six months running from town to town, sleeping in police stations and museum bathrooms. Then, Raphael had found her, arranged a foster family in return to always be there for him. In that year, as Raphael's crony and lapdog, she had created more diamonds then she ever had in her life. Unfortunately, given the fact that she was stuck in Mythic form, her life-sized replicas of precious stone would never turn back to human.

After a year of this, she finally realized what she was doing, and managed to change back to human. Since then, she had been running from Raphael, always managing to stay just one step ahead.

Those four months with David and the other Mythics had been the best of her life. Unfortunately, they couldn't stay together. Which really sucked.

But here he was. Here they all were. David, Raven, John and herself, all standing in front of Meyers High School and waiting for the front doors to open.

Instantly, she was smothered in a group hug. Sure, she and Raven had come together and had already shared their emotional reunion, but now they were all together. The entire group was back in action. And Isabel was crying. How embarrassing!

"Isabel," David said, his eyes fogging up as well. "Why are you crying?" He held her shoulders, and arm's length away from him. He lifted a hand and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Now she was sobbing uncontrollably. "You moron!" She hugged him tightly, and then hugged John. Then Raven, even though they had come to school together. She had missed them so much, and she couldn't ignore that emotion any longer.

They had a first period study hall together, and for that entire time they never stopped talking. Not once.

Unfortunately, they never talked about the problem at hand, that Raphael was about to ruin another girl's life. So, when the bell rang for the next class, it was mutually decided that they would skip to form a plan.

Beneath the bleachers of the stadium, avoiding the piles of trash, they got to business. "Does she know what she is?" David asked.

Isabel and John shook their heads at the same time. "When I Saw her, she was clueless. She thinks her hair is some sort of genetic malfunction," John said.

"What's wrong with her hair?"

"It's blue."

Isabel shook her head. This girl was stupid if she had blue hair and still thought everything was normal. "Raphael likes to keep his victims in ignorance. The less she knows, the more powerful he is."

"Hang on," David interjected. "Raphael taught you everything he knew about computers, gadgets, hot-wiring cars… That's not exactly keeping you ignorant."

She shrugged. "I was his first victim. He learned not to teach them anything after I used his knowledge to free myself." It was the past, long gone. That didn't mean she still didn't desire with every last fiber of her heart to break Raphael's nose.

"How would she not learn her of her second form from mirrors? I mean, I wear long sleeves no matter what, and all I have to hide is my wings." Raven had gotten in fights with many of her instructors, almost getting kicked out of the dance school, when she refused to take her sweater off during class. With the wall covered in mirrors, though, she would prefer getting in trouble then having her secret revealed.

"Some people don't change," John pointed out. "I can look in the mirror and see my real reflection. I don't have a second form."

Isabel scoffed. "Lucky you." Everyone knew hers was the hardest reflection to hide, as snakes replaced her unruly curls when she transformed.

David shook his head. "This might be good, actually. John, can Raphael Control you?"

He shook his head. "Nope, since I don't technically have a Mythic form, he has no way to Control me." His blue eyes darkened slightly. "Though that's not to say he didn't try."

David nodded, sympathetically. It was no secret that they all hated Raphael more than words could rightly describe. He had ruined their lives, turned friend against friend, hoping to break them apart. He still remembered, with too much vividness, when Raphael had made him beat up Raven, his closest friend. She was lucky to be alive, now. It was not fun to be controlled. "What if this girl, Eris, is the same way? What if her powers aren't physical, but mental, like yours?" He nodded to John.

Raven shook her head. "What if she's not, though? She could be being Controlled, now, and we don't even know it."

Isabel's gray eyes sparked with an idea. "We wouldn't know it, but you would."

Raven glared. "Isabel, you know I don't like to use my powers that way."

"Raven!" she begged. "Think about it! You always knew when one of us were being Controlled. You even knew how to make us change to our human form so Rafey no longer had an effect on us. We can't even go near Eris until we're absolutely sure she's not going to blab about us to Raphael. You can."

Raven growled, standing on tip-toes to be face to face with the tall gorgon. Somehow, no matter what the situation, she and Isabel always managed to get in an argument. Sure, they were close friends, closer than most because they had fought for their lives side by side. That didn't mean they couldn't still mix it up for all they were worth. "Isabel, do you hear what you are saying!"

"Of course I do."

"Uh, no you don't. I barely use my powers! When I do use them, it's to keep us safe, like scrambling someone's memory or making us invisible. Now, you are asking me to test Eris to see if she is being Controlled, and if she's not, you want me to Control her. Did I get everything?"

Isabel smiled her annoying snake smile, slow and lazy with the underlying threat of venom beneath it. "You missed that if she is being Controlled by Rafey, to get him out of her head," she said innocently.

"You're crazy," Raven spat, her dark eyes sparking in anger.

"No, actually I'm Medusa."

She had been close to hitting the insufferable snake quite a few times in the past (and once they had indeed gotten into a full blown fight before David separated them), but never did she want to crack the girl so much as she did now. "John, back me up!"

John winced as he was called into the argument. He and David were trying very hard to ignore them, something that became a little easier when John created the illusion of an eagle and a cobra fighting in his palm. "Uh… sorry, Rae. I'm with Isabel on this one. We need to make sure that Eris is on our side."

Raven, ignoring Isabel's victorious smirk that all but screamed to be smacked off, turned to her best friend. "David? Don't tell me you're for this nonsense."

David was huge, towering over Raven's five-foot height like a giant. All the same, he cowered under Raven's glare. "Uh… who's hungry? I'm starved. I could really go for some fries right- ow!" His sentence was cut short with a cry of pain, as Raven had lodged her foot mercilessly in his groin. Damn that girl could kick! He fell to his knees, sucking air deeply to try and shake off the pain. "What was that for!"

"You're supposed to agree with me!"

"Why didn't you hit John?"

She opened her mouth, her finger waving in anger, then closed it, dropping her hand. "Good point. Hang on." Ignoring John, who was standing beside him howling with laughter, she walked up to a wooden beam and kicked it. Hard. The laughing John disappeared, and the beam transformed to John. "Didn't think you would get away that easily, did you?"

Both David and John were now beyond fighting. It was up to Isabel to get her point across as the boys whimpered and cowered like… boys. She hit Raven behind the knees, causing her to lose her balance. Then she transformed, snakes writhing on her head, tasting the emotions coming from Medusa like a wine. She grabbed Raven's shoulders roughly, pulling her toward the snakes on her head. "You remember when I said they only bite when I ask them? Well guess what! I'm about to ask them!" Medusa was livid at the redhead. She knew that she was right, and it was her own damn insecurity with her powers that prevented her from going through with it. Well, she'd be damned if she would let Raven's insecurity be the downfall to their plan.

"Medusa, don't think you can scare me with those garden snakes. I'm not doing it!" Raven's decision was adamant. Her power was nothing compared to Raphael's. He had more practice, and there was no way she could beat that.

Medusa pushed her away in disgust, with enough force that Raven fell to the ground. She transformed to human again. "Raven, if you don't do this, you will condemn this girl's life. You think you know what it's like to have Raphael ruin your life? Well, guess what, so do I! And I will not just sit by and watch as he takes another victim just because you are too scared to get him out of her head." She took a shuddering breath and left. She was getting way too emotional, and the times were serious. If she lost it now, an innocent girl would suffer a fate worse than death.

Sitting on the stairs to the bleachers, David approached her. Tentatively, he placed an arm around her shoulder, and was surprised to find that she was shaking. "Are you okay," he asked.

She nodded, then shook her head, resting her head on his chest. She was safe like this. She always was when he was around. "I'm sorry I blew up back there. It's just this whole thing, it reminds me too much of my past. I've tried to forget it for so long, and then something like this happens and it resurfaces with a vengeance."

David nodded, understanding. He knew that the rest of them thought of Isabel as the strong one. Cold hearted and bitchy, yes, but also strong. She knew everything, always had something hidden up her sleeve to save them all. Only David saw past all of this. He knew that all those random bits of information she had was just a way to forget about her fear. Her inane bitchiness was a defense mechanism born from years on the run. Yes, she was strong, but at times like these, David wondered whether she really needed the help she so casually refused. "Raven will do it, you know. But she's just as scared as you are. As all of us are."

Isabel looked at him, the coldness from her gray eyes disappearing so he could see her for who she really was. She didn't do that often; she prided herself on her strict control. "We can't screw this up, David. If Raphael gets into this girl's head, who do you think he's coming after next?" Not to mention the fact that not being in control of your own body was a real pain in the ass, especially when Raphael told you to kill someone. It messed with Isabel's conscience to this day. She didn't want another girl to have to deal with it as well.

David sighed, pulling her closer. "We won't screw up. Not this time."

* * *

"Do you believe her! Not even a day back together and she's telling me to do this! What is wrong with her? John, tell me what's wrong with her!" Raven was in a right state, pacing under the bleachers, eyes alight with anger. She suddenly realized why Raphael liked his furies so much when he was pissed off. In the state she was in, she could have gone for some random destruction, starting with Isabel's face. 

John shook his head, eyes narrowed as he probed her mind. He didn't really need to with Raven. She kind of wore her emotions out in the open for everyone to see. It was an honorable trait, but at the moment, it was making it seem like all chaos was banging around in his head. "Raven, do you mind thinking a little softer?"

"What? Oh, sorry." She took a deep breath, trying as hard as she could to calm her rage. It only managed to bubble free of her control. "But she wants me to Control this girl like Rafey would!"

John winced, doing his best not to block his ears. As an Oracle, he had many psychic talents. His favorite was the illusions; his least favorite was the visions. The ability to hear emotions… that was just a pain. "Raven! You're vocal enough as it is without having your anger talk to me as well!" He rarely lost his temper, especially not at Raven, but her emotions were just so loud, and for once he thought Isabel was right.

She clamped her mouth shut, but Anger was still wailing fire alarms in his ear. He sighed. She couldn't help it if she was pissed. He would be, too, given the circumstances. "You're not like him, you know."

Raven's lips tightened as he struck a nerve. This was exactly what she feared, becoming too haughty with her powers and being like Raphael. "How are you so sure? Our gift is the same, only mine is more powerful. I can use it on human and Mythic alike. What if I go into this girl's head and Raphael realizes I'm there. What if she can't be Controlled? What if I mess something up in her head. I could actually hurt her with my voice, John. If my voice could kill a fury, what could it do to a girl who doesn't even know she's a Mythic?"

Anger was now replaced with angst and worry. She was terrified of hurting this girl. John needed to makes sure she knew that Raphael would hurt her worse.

"God, John, I'm just so confused!"

And that was all it took for him to wrap his arms around her, slowly stroking her hair. Her lightly dyed hair was beginning to fade, and the roots were growing out, revealing the vivid red it had been only a year ago. "Raven, you know what to do. Your powers are strong, yes, but you also have control. You always have. And nothing, absolutely nothing, makes you like Raphael, so get that thought out of your head."

She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder, and singing softly, absently. John smiled as her song took the edge off the thousands of the blaring emotions emanating from the high school. "I love it when you do that," she muttered.

"Do what," he asked. Touch always sharpened his connection with emotions, and Raven was no different. Her emotions were incredible though, like a chorus that could change from opera to rock without even missing a beat. It was like being wrapped in song.

She laughed. "Make everything alright."

**cool! theres a button to make page breaks. and here i've been a dork, oooo-ing to my hearts demise. o well. gave my fingers excersize. so, u kno the drill. i wrote. u read. now review! i kno, not much action in this chapter, but u all owe me a going away present anyway (like big long reviews!)**


	6. Chapter 6 Still Dreaming

**i feel like such a dork cus i just said i wouldnt be updating. and now, six seocnds later, i'm updating again. i couldnt help it! i was reading over this chapter and it was just too FUNNY to pass up. i cracked up as i wrote it. i hope it has the same effect for u. **

Chapter 6- Still Dreaming

Weird was not liking chocolate. Weird was eating ketchup on chicken Caesar salad. Weird was screaming at random intervals to see how people would react. Going to sleep in a dream to wake up in the same dream, with Rafe-echo still in her head… that wasn't weird.

That was freaking sick!

She groaned, stuffing her head under her pillow in an attempt to block his voice. _Wear a turtle neck and gloves today._ Well, just fabulous. The first truly warm day of spring and she would be wearing a turtleneck.

She gave a quick look at her hands. Blue scales still decorated her wrists. Jason was definitely going to notice, and gloves were just a stupid idea. She could always say it was stick on jewelry, and figure out how to pry one off to… hang on a second! This was a dream! She didn't give a damn what dream-Jason thought. She didn't even care what real-Jason thought.

There was a loud pounding on the door, and the devil himself slammed open the door. Well, the devil in the form of her older brother, the morning person. Anyone who could function at six thirty in the morning was Satan's spawn for sure. "What do you want," Eris groaned, stuffing her hands under the pillow just to be safe.

Through her dim vision she saw him make a face. "Get up. I have a lab this morning. If you want a ride to school you need to be ready early."

Her hand grappled blindly for something, anything, she could throw at the evil-alarm-clock-brother-from-hell. She grasped something hard and threw it at him, but it succeeded only in flopping across her floor. Jason rolled his eyes, and slammed the door closed.

Eris crawled out of bed, put on the bloody turtleneck, and found a pair of black and pink striped fingerless gloves that crawled up her forearm. _Great! Now I'm a blue haired freak, and a goth. Where did I get these gloves anyway?_ She proceeded down the stairs, muttering darkly about insufferable brothers and early mornings.

"Honey, it's going to be warm today," Lily said, glancing up from her cereal to give her daughter a look. Lily was a secretary at a doctor's office, not the most exciting of jobs, but it paid the bills. "Are you sure you want to wear that?"

Eris grumbled incoherently. "No, I really don't want to wear this, but there's this annoying voice in my head that says I have to."

Lily snorted through her cereal, resisting the urge to laugh. It didn't work. Eris inherited her father's natural comedy, though she would be traumatized to learn it. "Is the voice also telling you what to eat for breakfast?"

Eris closed her eyes a moment, then shook her head. "Nope, nothing. I'm eating pizza." She dove for the fridge, pulling out the leftover slices from last night's dinner and heating them in the microwave.

"Pizza for breakfast," Jason commented as he bounded down the stairs, narrowly missing a box in the process. "There's a healthy start to the day."

"Bite me," Eris retorted as the microwave buzzed.

An hour later, Eris sat on the front steps to the school, waiting for the doors to open for the non-psycho-zombies of daylight that preferred sleeping in to going to lab. She pushed up the striped glove on one hand, tapping the scales on her wrist. When she tried to peel them off, she only managed to inflict great pain and bleeding. _Great,_ she thought. _So when I wake up I'm going to be self-abused. You're such a masochist, Eris._

Replacing the glove, she pounded her back against the stair, feeling the concrete dig into her skin. She was really tired of dreaming, really wanted to wake up, and really wanted to punch dream-Rafe to get his stupid voice out of her head.

_Don't turn around._ There he was, in her head again. "What are you doing here so early?" Raphael asked.

"My brother had an early lab and I had no other ride." She did not turn to face him. She felt a disturbance of air behind her as Raphael knelt, wrapping his arms around her waist. He nibbled her ear. Gross!

_Turn around._ Why was it that Rafe-echo always managed to tell her to do the exact opposite of what she wanted to do? She turned to face him, only to have her lips ensnared roughly by his.

She squeaked, pushing him away and raising a fist in anger. "You son of a bitch!"

He chuckled softly, his fingers inching along her hips to pull her closer. "Don't tell me you didn't like it."

Eris glared. She liked real-Raphael, she really did. He was too serious and liked chocolate, but he was pretty cool. Dream-Raphael on the other hand, was just starting to piss her off.

Eris wasn't one of those girls who whimpered and cried when a guy got fresh. Her older brother taught her the best way to throw a punch, and with a genetic malfunction that caused her hair to be blue… well she learned the rest of it from that. So, without further thought to consequence, she drew her fist back and hit him squarely on the nose.

"Ow!" he screamed, releasing her to clutch his damaged nose. Why did everyone go for the nose anyway? "What's wrong with you!"

Eris growled, standing up and hoisting him up by his shoulders, slamming him against the wall. "You touch me again and I will make sure you will never have the desire to touch any girl ever again. Do I make myself clear?" She loved her brother for times like this, teaching her how to use sheer macho-ism to get her point across.

Raphael, eyes widened with shock at the fact that he had just been pinned to the wall by a girl as skinny as a stick, nodded quickly. "Crystal." Eris dropped him, and he rubbed his shoulders. There would be bruises there, later.

"Now, I want answers and I want them now."

He smiled slowly, teasingly, and Eris was aware of something strange about him. There was a darkness, a viciousness, about him that lurked just behind his eyes. "Answers to what, beautiful?"

She ripped off one of the gloves and pushed up her sleeve, forcing him to look at her hand. "Uh, hello? These aren't stick-ons! I'm not stupid, Rafe. You did something to me yesterday, and I want to know what!"

He shrugged, turning from her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

More people were starting to crowd around the entrance, and Eris replaced the glove, hurriedly. She lowered her voice, stepping close to him so no one would overhear her. "Look, I'm not even sure if all of this is just the weirdest dream I've ever had, but I am sure that you know something. Now spill."

Raphael's eyes narrowed, and he gave a slow, playful smile. "No."

"Spill," she said again, this time with more force.

"Make me."

Raphael realized at that moment that that particular taunt was not the right one to say to this particular girl, for she was more than willing to take up the challenge.

Backing him up into a corner, Eris rested her head on his shoulder, softly nuzzling his neck. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Raphael was just starting to relax when her gloved hand lowered and…

"Holy shit!" His eyes widened in pain, excruciating mind-numbing pain, as she grabbed. And twisted. To anyone watching it would look like they were merely making out. To Raphael, it was a fate worse than death. She wouldn't let go!

"Tell me," she whispered in his ear, her blue hair falling into her wide sapphire eyes. "Tell me, now."

"Let go," he squeaked, for that was the only sound that would escape his mouth. She tightened her grip, and it was all Raphael could do not to cry like a girl.

Eris was adamant, lifting her head and glaring fearlessly into his eyes. "I suggest if you ever want to have kids, you tell me everything you know."

"You're a Naiad. You have the Mythic gene that triggered on your thirteenth birthday. It's why you have blue hair. And why you swim so well. You're a water nymph." Raphael said this quickly, in-between gasps of mind-numbing pain.

She wasn't letting go. Why wasn't she letting go! "Why do I have scales now and not any other time?"

Raphael was actually whimpering. "This is your Mythic form, where your powers will be the strongest."

"And why do I keep hearing your voice in my head telling me what to do?"

Dear God where was a gun! If there was a cliff in front of him, nothing would have stopped him from running like hell to jump over it, just to get away from this walking blue-haired torture device! "I'm a Controller! I can control your will when you're in Mythic form!" She pressed her other hand on his mouth to stop him from screaming. It distracted her a little from her grip below, from a vise to an uncomfortable pressure.

"Make me change back," she said, her eyes shining with anger.

"Absolutely not."

Her grip was back with a vengeance. She repeated her statement very slowly. "Make- me- change- back."

"Alright, alright!"

Eris heard Raphael in her head. _Change back to human. For God's sake, change back, **NOW**!_ She heard an unusual popping sensation under her skin as her bones and muscles changed back to that of a human. Eris released her grip, and Raphael crumbled to the ground.

"I'll be speaking with you later," Eris said, walking away from his defeated form and into the school.

* * *

Raven saw Eris by her locker, pulling out some books that caused the rest of them to topple on the floor. With several curses she knelt to pick them up. Raven went to help.

"Annoying, isn't it? The lockers are all at an incline to the wall," Raven said, helping her replace papers into a binder that broke on its fall to the ground.

Eris rolled her eyes. "Who designed this school anyway? A bunch of morons if you ask me."

Raven laughed, and subtly hummed under her breath. Eris looked up suddenly, eyes narrowing. "You're voice is weird," she stated. "Stop singing."

Raven, realizing that this girl was not in Mythic form, so neither she or Raphael had any control over her, stopped singing. "I like your hair," she said, trying to get a conversation going as they stood up. "It suits you."

Eris fingered the vivid strands. "Yeah, well it's been getting me in some trouble lately. Have you been at Meyers long?"

Raven shrugged. "Well, yes and no. I was here for a long time, but then I moved last year. Now, I'm back again."

"Why'd you come back?"

Raven smiled, broadly. "For the food. How about you. Any particular reason for coming to Meyers?"

Eris shrugged, distractedly. "For the food."

Raven noticed that Eris was slouched; looking tired, lost and defeated. She knew that look very well. She had recently learned something that she didn't want to know. "If I told you it gets better than this; that not all of us are like Raphael, would you believe me?"

Eris's eyes widened. "There's more?"

"Yeah, there's a couple. I can't talk about it here, it's too risky, but I will explain everything, I promise. Just do me a favor and stay away from Raphael." Raven liked Eris already; she was just an easy person to be friends with. She didn't want to see her get hurt.

"Why?"

Raven bit her lip. She couldn't tell her everything yet, not until she was sure Raphael wouldn't get involved. Of course, he would, but at least she could make an effort to leave him to rot. "If he gets into your head, he will not hesitate to hurt you and everyone you love. Take my word for it."

Eris didn't know who this girl was, or why she felt the overwhelming urge to trust her. Maybe it was her voice that seemed to calm her with every word she spoke. Maybe it was because she was like her, a Mythic, whatever the hell that was supposed to be. But maybe, just maybe, it was the underlying sense of pain that lingered in her eyes, making Eris realize that this girl was not so much different than herself.

**HAHAHAHA! sorry, every time i read it, i crack up. i love eris! it was sooo time someone put rafe back in his place! HAHAHAHA!**


	7. Chapter 7 Furies

**this is offically my last update before i leave for the united kingdom. (in wales i am going to repel off the side of a freaking tower! ) anyway, this is my going away present to everyone. yur present to me is to review. i only have twenty reviews! if yur reading this, PLEASE PLEASE review. its very important to me! thats all that matters. lol. no really, i like hearng what u have to say, and i take critiques into serious consideration when editing.**

Chapter 7- Furies

"You didn't do it, did you? You little coward!" David had to forcibly restrain Isabel from throwing herself at the other girl. This sort of thing was fairly normal when the two were together. Sure, they were best friends, but they agreed on nothing. And since both were used to getting their own way, well, David and John had to play the peacekeepers. A lot.

Raven didn't look like she was in the mood for a fight, and raised her hands in defeat. "Look, it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. She's not in Mythic form, so I couldn't control her unless I was Siren. And that's sure not going to happen in the middle of a hallway."

Isabel glowered, very annoyed that her ingenious (and it was ingenious!) idea hadn't worked. "Look, let's get out of here. It's not like we're actually here for the classes. We need to come up with a plan."

"And I'm hungry," David added. "Who's up for Pizza Hut?"

A half hour later, the four teenagers were busy stuffing their faces with greasy, cheesy, and all-together heavenly pizza. Raven hadn't had pizza for the entire year she was at Joffrey, and found the experience entirely pleasurable.

"So, what are we going to do," David asked, already working on his third slice. He had bought a pie of pizza just for himself.

John helped himself to Raven's leftover crust, and winced as she backhanded his chest. "Ow. I don't think there is much we can do. I mean, we can tell Eris about what she is, and warn her about Raphael, but she is still free to make her own choices. Who's to say she might not want to work for Raphael?" John was cowering as he said that last remark, knowing it very well might be his last.

"What?" Isabel asked, slowly, eyebrows raised. "I really hope I just misheard you."

John shifted uncomfortably in his seat under the other three Mythics' glares. "Look, I've had visions of Raphael. Yes, he was nothing less then heartless to us, but I think we forget that he's also a lot like us. A Mythic whose powers completely screwed his life."

David blinked rapidly, trying to absorb what John just said. "It's been hard for all of us to adjust to the changes we've had to make, but none of us are plucking innocent people off the streets and making them do our dirty work."

"I know we're not, but what if Raphael had no other choice. Sure, he let his power corrupt him, but what if he just let it corrupt him because it was his only way to survive."

John seemed to have lost his energetic bounce and quick wits. This only happened when something was really bothering him. He must have been thinking about this for a long time. Raven rested her hand on his to comfort him. "He killed your parents, John," she said, gently.

John jerked as if he had been physically struck. "Yeah, I know. I'm just saying, that's all." He glared down at his lap, his eyes glazed with moisture.

David took pity on his friend and directed the conversation from there. "Maybe he's right. I'm not saying to take it easy on Raphael, but just make sure you keep an open mind."

Isabel scoffed, and muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Fat chance," but it was said so softly, only David could hear it.

David rolled his eyes. "Well, at least it can't get much worse." Isabel and Raven suddenly squirmed as those words were spoken. David groaned. "What is it?"

"Well, it's a funny story. You see, when I was going to get Raven-" Isabel said, shifting around in her chair.

"We kind of had this… uh… visitor." Raven turned to Isabel. "Would you call him a visitor, Bella?"

"Yeah, of course. A visitor who-"

"Lurked outside the fire escape window-"

"With a gun-"

"Who knows who we are," Raven finished.

David groaned and ran his fingers through his close-cropped hair. He never understood how he became the leader of this mismatched group of teens, but he took his place very seriously. It wasn't just the fact that he always had a plan lingering in the depths of his twisted and somewhat psychotic brain, but that the other three trusted his plans and his overall decisions without question. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"We were going to," Isabel said. "But with all the stuff going around here, well, a guy with a gun sort of pales in comparison."

David nodded. The girl had a point. "Is there anything you could tell me about him?"

Raven shrugged. "He knew my name, and I had been going by Robin while I was there. But he said he just wanted to talk."

"He tasted funny," Isabel continued. "Familiar, almost."

"Was he one of Raphael's?" David asked.

Both Isabel and Raven shook their heads. "I don't think so. We would have known if he was, and he wouldn't have hesitated for so long." Raven shook her head. "It was the strangest thing. He was just, sitting there, like he had every right to be there."

David looked to John, who had actually fallen silent, amazingly enough. "Have you had any visions that might explain this?"

John shrugged. "The entire time I was overseas, the only vision I had was of Eris and Raphael swimming. It reoccurred constantly, but there was nothing else. Sorry."

Raven groaned, leaning back in her seat and curling her legs underneath her. "What the hell are we going to do?"

* * *

Raphael had given Eris his cell phone number the night before. He told her to call him whenever she needed him. Well, she didn't particularly need him at the moment, but she did need his knowledge. There were still a thousand and a half questions resonating in her brain, and he was the only one she knew who could answer them. Sure, there was that girl, the one with the dyed hair that was fading, revealing riveting red at the roots and in strands among the washed out brown… she said she knew some things too. Eris had looked for her, but after their brief meeting at her locker, hadn't seen her again. 

This left only on option. As she stared at her own cell phone, the scrap of paper with Rafe's number folded up into the palm of her hand, she debated any other choice. There had to be something! Raphael just might kill her after what she had just done to him. Calling him for answers so soon after didn't seem like the best plan.

She pounded her head with her fist, trying to make an idea trickle from the vast impenetrable stupidity that was her brain. What had made her do that! Why couldn't she ever manage to think past the here and now, to acknowledge the consequences that were sure to come?

Like this one, for example. She needed the help of the person she had just inflicted great pain upon. Ironic, no?

Before she could talk herself out of it, she quickly dialed the phone number. She held her breath as it rang, unsure if she wanted him to pickup or not.

"This is Raphael," came his strict, business tone in her phone.

"What kind of a moron answers the phone like that? A hello would do just fine." Best not mention the completely out of character actions she had catalyzed this morning.

"Hello, Eris."

Eris realized this was a very bad idea. That girl had warned her not to talk to Raphael anymore, and here she was, doing exactly that. Raphael just might kill her if he got the opportunity, and Eris couldn't say she blamed him. She hung up.

Five seconds later, her cell phone rang.

"Hello," Eris answered, nervously. Her voice wobbled slightly as she spoke.

"I'm not mad at you, you know. Actually, I'm almost impressed. Almost." Raphael's voice was as condescending and annoying as usual. He changed so much in the last couple hours. When she first met him, he had been awesome. Someone she could actually talk to. Now, he was this annoying little bastard. What a pain.

Well, if he wanted to play that part, she could give him a run for his money. "Meet me at my house in a half hour. Don't be late." She tried to make her voice sound like a secret agent on a Hollywood movie, all strict business with power to spare.

He laughed softly. "Whatever you say, beautiful." He hung up.

Eris glared at her cheap cell phone. This was it. The day of reckoning was upon her, and she'd be damned if she didn't have a plan to liven it up a little.

There was no denying that there was something weird about her. She wasn't sure if she was a Naiad or a Mythic or whatever Raphael had been talking about, but she was definitely able to control water.

The human body was three fifths made of water.

So, a half hour later, Raphael rang her doorbell. Jason actually got up off his lazy butt to answer the door, but that was only because he wanted to say something to Rafe.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are-" Jason started.

"I'm Raphael Alverez," Rafe interrupted, innocently.

"Yeah, okay. Well, I'm her big brother and I watch out for her. So…"

"Thank you, Jason!" Eris shouted from the staircase, bounding down the stairs. "I'll take it from her." She pushed past her brother and grabbed Raphael's wrist in a very hard grip, pulling him down to the basement. She was muttering under her breath, something along the lines of, "No privacy. None at all."

"Nice to see you, too, Eris," Raphael commented.

"Shut up," she snapped. "Sit."

Raphael, remembering only too vividly their last encounter, did just that, sitting on a chair in the middle of the unfurnished basement. "So, what do we do now? I know what you are, you know what I am… and yet we are still wasting time just sitting around."

Eris took a deep breath, wiping her palms on the front of her t-shirt. She was nervous. Despite the outward bravado she put on, she was still scared out of her mind. Raphael noticed, and grinned. "Wipe that smile off your face. I want answers."

Raphael sighed. "I thought we've been through this before. You've already asked all the questions that you need the answers too."

"Not all of them. You never told me why."

Raphael blinked. "Yes I did. A recessive gene was passed throughout your family and activated…"

"Not why I'm a Mythic! Why did you get in my head? Why did you want to Control me? There's more than just me, I know there is."

Raphael's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean there is more than just you?"

Eris, realizing the fatality of her last statement clamped her mouth shut. Raphael knew that girl, that redhead with the strange voice. She made an educated guess to figure they didn't get along very well. Still, she had to play the strong person, unable to make stupid slipups. She glared. "Answer the question."

Raphael was up in an instant, slamming his hand on Eris's throat. He liked her, he really did, but she was playing with fire here, and it was time she learned to stay in her place. Raphael tried to enter her mind. He knew it wouldn't work, but he would be able to sense if another Controller had been near her. He heard Raven's song floating around in Eris's head, not Controlling her, but helping her cope with the emotional affront of realizing life was about to change.

"You talked to Raven, didn't you?" Raphael said, menacingly, hand still squeezing her throat as he pushed her into the wall. She was gagging, her mouth parted to inhale more oxygen and her fingers scratching at his wrist. It didn't faze him though. He was in that halfway place, right before he got really angry. It made him more tolerant to pain, and slightly stronger. In another few seconds, his supernatural friends would be joining them.

Eris couldn't call for help; she couldn't breathe enough to fill her lungs let alone scream. An attempt to knee him in the groin did nothing, for he had arranged his legs out of harm's way. She was scared. No, not scared. Terrified! There was something about Raphael when he was angry, something very wrong. He had the capability to kill her, and would bear no regrets.

Raphael knew she was scared. Under her sapphire glare of resistance he could see the fear. A purple bruise was beginning to blossom around his hand, where his fingertips dug into her throat. "What did Raven tell you?"

Her hand swiped for his eyes, but he leaned out of the way. Inwardly, he grinned. She was a natural fighter, with good instincts for escape. If he trained her up a little, she could be quite good. He realized her eyes were getting weary and glazed. She wasn't getting enough oxygen. He let her go, knowing she would be too focused on breathing to put up much of a fight. She crumbled to the ground, clutching her throat and inhaling deeply.

"Answer my question."

There was a spark in her eyes, and suddenly she was breathing normally. So normally, in fact, that she was able to thrust her heel into his solar plexus and make a run for the stairs. It had been an act. Smart girl.

Raphael closed his eyes, and let his anger overcome him. There was a wailing in his ears, then a delicious intoxicating feeling of absolute power. When he opened his eyes, Eris was frozen in utter horror in front of the stairs, her passage blocked by a fury.

A perk to being a Controller of his particular breed was that whenever he got angry, horrific creatures called furies appeared, obeying any order he had. He quickly learned how to control his anger, unleashing it at the moments he needed it.

This fury was long, almost serpentine, with midnight black scales along its massive body. It flapped great leathery wings, and Eris's eyes widened in utter terror. She was about to scream.

"Don't scream, Eris," Raphael said after he finally caught his breath. Her jaw clamped shut, still staring at the dragon-like creature. "Now, sit." Eris was shaking as she took the seat previously intended for Raphael.

The fury, on his command, began slowly circling the room. Eris resisted the urge to follow it with her eyes. "Is it real," she asked.

"Very real," Raphael replied. "It's called a fury, amazingly strong, with the ability to fly and acidic blood. Now, your going to sit there and answer my questions like a good little girl, aren't you?" Her head nodded so fast, it looked liable to fall off. "Good. Now, what did Raven say to you?"

Eris gave a sidelong look at the fury. "Was she the redhead with the funny voice?"

"Yes."

_Don't scream. Don't scream. Don't scream._ She figured if she said it enough in her head, she might actually listen to herself. "She said she liked my hair, and that she had just moved here. Uh…" She winced as the fury's large steely beak clashed close to her ear. "She said that it gets better than this. And…" She trailed off uncertainly.

"And what?" Raphael implored.

Eris bit her lip. She was going to die. She knew it. Raphael was going to have his freaky little pet eat her up for dinner. Or maybe an appetizer. Its stomach looked too big for Eris to fill it alone. "She said to stay away from you. That if you got the chance, you would hurt me and everyone I loved." She stared at her feet as she said this, not daring to see Raphael's reaction. She was lunch.

Raphael leaned close to her, placing his fingertips under her chin and forcing her gaze upwards. "Did you believe her?"

Eris gulped. Well, that was a loaded question. She looked away, examining the cracks in the cement floor.

The fury disappeared. "Eris, look at me and answer the question. Did you believe her?"

Eris looked at him, and was surprised to find pain in his crystal blue eyes. She understood. He hated being alone. "No," she said, softly. "I didn't believe her and I still don't."

"Why not?"

"If you really wanted to hurt me, you would have done it already." Raphael traced his hand along the darkening bruise on her neck, forming the rough striations of his fingers. His eyebrows were raised. "Well, I'm sure you didn't really mean that."

He turned roughly, his eyes darkening defensively. "You're wrong. I can hurt you. I will. I don't care about you, your family, anything. Whatever I have to do to make you submit to me, I will do it."

He was trying to hide something from her. Eris wasn't the best judge of character, but for some reason, she found it easy to figure Raphael out. He was just a kid who got thrown with the sharks too early. If he didn't learn how to bite, he would be eaten. Eris knew how that felt. She took a deep breath. "What if…" She paused, brushing her indigo hair from her eyes. She was about to do something really,_ really_ stupid. "What if all you had to do was ask me?"

Raphael turned suddenly, looking shocked. "You would do that?"

_Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ Eris scolded herself. But she had a weird sense of pity for him, and thought maybe, just maybe, with her company, he wouldn't be quite as evil. "Yes."

"Fine, then. Change into your Mythic form."

Eris blinked. "I don't know how."

He rolled his eyes. "We have a lot of work to do. Just visualize your second shape and will yourself to become it."

She did as she was told, and the moment she felt her body change, she heard Raphael's voice in her head. _Don't change back. _

* * *

Their living arrangement left a lot to be desired. Since Isabel had a limitless amount of money at her fingertips, she paid the rent for an apartment. Unfortunately, this apartment had no furniture, no tables, and the only appliances it came with were a microwave, a refrigerator, and a stove. 

The four Mythics entered the living space, looking around at the boring surroundings. "Nice choice, Isabel," Raven commented.

"Grim. Very grim," John muttered.

She shrugged. "I wasn't given much notice and I figured four teenagers living in an upscale penthouse suite would look a tad suspicious. This was the best I could do." She threw her bag on the floor, beside a small suitcase with her needed requirements. There was the usual change of clothes for a week, toothbrush, shampoo (she was used to living Spartan when the time came). There was also her laptop. That was what she really needed. She opened it quietly, placing it on her lap as she leaned against the wall.

"What are you doing?" David asked, sitting beside her.

Isabel logged into the internet. "I'm not really sure yet. There's just something I need to find out."

"What?"

"Why that man seemed so familiar." David watched over her shoulder as she used a normal search engine to find what she needed. Raven was taking advantage of the huge amount of empty space to practice dancing, humming absently to herself as she did. John was watching her with a smile, eyes half closed as he listened to her sing. They all knew her voice helped ease the pain of his gift.

"Come dance with me," Raven said to John, balancing on the balls of her feet with her arms stretched toward where he was sitting.

He shook his head, a blush tinting his cheekbones. "I don't think so. I have two left feet."

Raven glanced at Isabel, a question in her eyes. The other girl nodded, switching programs on her computer to download a series of Irish folk music, with lively fiddles and drums. In seconds after playing, Isabel had joined the redhead in a randomly perfect dance, laughing and spinning with the music, that David and John had no choice but to join their friends.

For however long they danced, they forgot everything. Their problems seemed further away, like a bad dream that they couldn't quite remember. Spinning and skipping through each other, the boys following the girls when they didn't know a step, and the girls making steps up as it convenienced them. They could almost pretend that they were normal. That just outside the door, there wasn't a whole world ready to hurt them. Their feet were brush-burned from the cheap carpet, and they ran into each other all the time. It didn't matter though. For as long as the music played, they were free.

Eventually, as night fell, they dropped to the floor, sleeping where they lay for there were no beds or blankets in the apartment. Isabel rested across David's chest, while Raven and John used Isabel's stomach as a pillow. Huddled together for warmth, they slept the best that night then they had during the entire twelve months they had been separated.

John was having a strange dream. He was swimming through water, trying desperately to reach the surface for air. His lungs were burning. But there were creatures clawing at his legs, holding him back. They pulled him down further, painfully far away from where he thought was up. He kicked at them viciously, only to find it was Raphael holding onto his legs. Only, he didn't look menacing. Far from it, in fact. He looked scared, in need of help.

With a shout he sat upright, only to be suddenly gripped by a vision. The human mind wasn't made to compensate sights of the future. Despite the fact that John wasn't fully human, the Sight still caused him terrible, mind-numbing pain. Usually, he was able to withstand it silently. Still in his half conscious state, though, not fully aware of what was happening, but knowing there was no way he could endure such pain and still live, he screamed. Blinding light fire was being pressed into his skull, and he shouted and yelled for all he was worth, not understanding who he was or what he was seeing. He only knew it had to stop.

Vaguely, he heard a female voice. He heard worry and despair bang gongs in his ears. "Sing, you idiot! Help him!"

And then, bliss. A voice echoed through the impenetrable agony of his mind, allowing his to push aside the pain and accept the vision. Hardly seconds later, he opened his eyes. "Sorry," he muttered sheepishly. "I didn't know what was happening. It started when I was sleeping so…" he trailed off, feeling mortified. Had he actually screamed?

David's eyes were still slightly blurry from sleep, but the look he hit him with was intense all the same. "It's okay. You're allowed to scream when you're in pain."

John shook his head. They didn't understand. There was no reason for him to scream. He was one of the lucky ones, with a gift that he could actually use. "Never mind. We have a problem."

"What's that?"

"I didn't See into the future this time. I Saw into the past. To a couple hours ago. Eris is letting Raphael Control her."

Raven's jaw hit the ground. "What!"

John rubbed his eyes. The hour of night was ungodly, and there was no reason any of them should be awake. "You heard me. She changed to her Mythic form, knowing full well that he would Control her if she did."

There was silence a moment. Finally, David spoke. "I guess our job here is done then."

"What are you talking about? Our job isn't done. We need to help her." Raven asked.

"Help her what? Go against what she wants." David rarely ever raised his voice, especially not at Raven. But here he was, yelling. "John just said she changed willingly. If that's the case, who are we to stop her. We're not God, Raven."

Raven was near tears. David never yelled. She hated when he did. "I'm not saying we are. But she can't understand what she's just gotten herself into. There is not way she could."

David looked to John, and John shrugged his shoulders. "She seemed to be pretty confident in her decision, Rae. She knew what she was doing."

Isabel shook her head, her knees curled up to her chest. For once, she was quiet when she spoke. "I don't think so."

"What?"

Isabel sighed, heavily. This was hard for her, because she could remember the same things happening to her. It seemed as if she would never fully heal from what Raphael did to her, no matter how many layers of poison and ice she built to protect herself. "Raphael is very persuasive."

David raised his eyebrows. "You mean he persuaded this girl to give up her free will?"

In the dark it was hard to see, but they knew she nodded. "Yes," she said softly. She hated talking about her past. She would much rather pretend it didn't exist. "It seems strange to you, but when you're lost and hurt and all you want is to have someone to count on… you'll give that person anything, your very life, if it means he'll always be there. When…" She paused taking a deep breath. She knew she would have to explain this part of her life sooner or later, but she still preferred it to be later. "When Raphael had me, I willingly changed for him. I would have given him my soul if he asked for it. He can convince you that you're not doing anything wrong, no matter what you're doing. So, Eris is not okay. She's not even close to it, because Raphael can and will destroy her life."

Silence met her confession. Isabel only spoke casually about her past, as if it mattered little to her. It never occurred to them that she still hurt after all these years. David sighed. "We'll go tomorrow. There has to be something we can do."

They were just about to nod off to sleep again, when Isabel suddenly swore, sitting up straight.

"What's wrong?"

Her eyes were darting in the dim light, as a waterfall of information flooded her brain. "That man, the one in New York. I know how he seemed so familiar. He's a Mythic, too."

John raised his eyebrows. This was unexpected. "Well, shit."


	8. Chapter 8 A Walk

**guess whose back! and guess whpse moving to london the minute she turns eighteen. moi! i had such an awesome time in the uk! guess what. i'm in such a good mood i'm giving u two chapters at once. count em! one, two! i still only have twenty one reviews tho... this isnt turning out to be as much of the crowd pleaser i had hoped it to be. o well. every good writer must admit to a dud... tho i must say i never thought this one would be it. **

Chapter 8- A Walk

The next morning, Raven needed a walk. Her mind seemed to be too damn small for the amount of stress and complications she was cramming it with. She needed to simply walk around without a purpose, and enjoy the pleasant Saturday morning.

In all honesty, she would have loved to fly. She hadn't been in her Mythic form for over a year, now, and she loved the freedom flying gave her. It was like dancing in the sky. Unfortunately, the risks were still too high to change into their Mythic form, even at night when it felt more natural than their human halves.

One foot placed in front of the other. Again and again. It was a steady, calming motion, and for once it seemed as if Raven could control the insane actions that were constantly put against her. Or, so she thought.

The apartment Isabel had chosen wasn't exactly in the best part of town. None of them were particularly worried about it, since their powers rendered them practically untouchable by a normal human. Still, it wasn't the best idea for Raven to walk unaccompanied in this area, inviting attack.

As she walked by an abandoned garage, the door gaping open like a crooked yawn, she felt something heavy push into her, knocking her into the old building. She stumbled to the ground, landing with a cry of pain, followed by several exclamations of anger as she realized who had caused her to fall.

He was just some ordinary street kid, fresh out of high school by the looks of it. He was rested on top of her, pinning her arms to her chest with his hands.

"Get off of me!" Raven yelled, beyond livid. First, everyone had to agree with Isabel for her wonderful plan, then Eris ended up getting Controlled willingly, then David yelled at her, plus she had been too damn slow to help John in his vision, and probably wouldn't have if Isabel hadn't yelled at her. And now this! Being tackled by some stupid human who was looking for a quick bang. This was not a good week!

The kid, whoever he was, smirked. "Nah, I like the view."

Forgetting that she was Siren and could control his will to get him off, spacing on every last amount of self-defense she had learned in the past year, missing the fact that she could simply scream and break his eardrums, she crashed heads with him very purposefully. She saw stars, but then, so did he.

He freed her hands in an instant, grabbing the goose-egg that was forming on his skull. With her hands free, she clapped his ears with her palms cupped. He howled in pain as his ears popped from the impact. She rolled away instantly. "You bitch! What was that for?"

Raven wasn't listening, already running out of the garage. She wasn't particularly scared, but she hated using her powers unless it was absolutely required of her. This mundane domestic disturbance definitely didn't qualify as one of those times.

If only this kid would just give up! He grabbed her roughly from behind, halting her flight. "That wasn't very nice. I only wanted to talk to you." He had her wrists firmly clasped in his own hands, his legs expertly arranged so a backward kick would hit nothing important.

Raven sighed, suddenly relaxing her body, leaning against him. "You really should let go of me."

"I like your voice," he whispered, nuzzling her neck. "Keep talking."

Raven smirked. "Whatever you say." Inhaling deeply, she let out a shrill ear piercing scream that caused the boy to let go, and her to run like hell back to the apartment.

Only, not fast enough. She had to give him credit for the most persistent attacker she had ever encountered. This time, he caught up to her and threw her against a wall, his hand clamped around her throat. She couldn't inhale enough to sing. _Now,_ she was afraid.

"I told you, I only want to talk," he said, looking frustrated. "Nearly broke my freaking eardrums. Now stop squirming and listen, Raven Voight."

Raven did not even falter at the sound of her real name. "You idiot. If you're after a girl named Raven, I suggest you let me go and go find her." She spoke at a whisper, her voice box too compressed to say it louder.

He released her throat, but adjusted a grip on her shoulders to prevent her from running again. Raven gave an inward sigh of relief. Her voice was all she needed. Looking into his eyes, she began to softly sing, not words, but notes. They blended and layered on top of each other perfectly, though, and the meaning was clear. Let go, walk away, and forget about the redhead with the unusual voice.

The boy smirked, giving her an annoyingly condescending look. "Watch your G's. They sound a little sharp."

Raven's jaw clamped shut. Being human meant that her song was a little weaker, but it should work just fine on this boy. Unless…

"That's right. If you would have stopped trying to kill me, I would have told you already." He released her, stepping back and holding out a hand. "The name is Michael. If I had a last name, I would share it with you, but I don't, so I won't."

She shook his hand tentatively. "Uh… Raven."

"Yeah, I know. So, you're a Mythic. I'm a Mythic. That's a pretty good conversation starter, don't you think?"

Raven tried not to gape like a fish out of water, but it was really hard. "Uh… what kind of Mythic are you?"

He hit his head. "Oh, right. Forgot. I'm Hydra, my power is regeneration." At Raven's baffled expression, he continued. "It means I can heal myself at will."

Raven nodded, ever so slowly. So much for a nice relaxing walk to clear her head. She recalled a phrase that John had said a few hours ago, and decided it would work well in this situation. "Well, shit."


	9. Chapter 9 Stay Out Of My Head

Chapter 9- Out Of My Head

Raphael deemed ten o'clock a reasonable time in the morning to visit Eris. He hadn't called, but he had been worried that damn brother of hers would pick up the phone. The element of surprise would work better here. Cautiously, he rang the doorbell. Promptly, Eris's mother, Lily, opened it. She was carrying a mug of coffee, and still in her pajamas, her hair wrapped in a messy bun at the base of her neck. "You again, huh? Don't you have a home of your own to spend Saturday mornings?"

Raphael was baffled by the question. "Uh… yea, of course I do. It's just more exciting here, what with all the sib wars going on."

Lily nodded, clearly understanding. "Point well taken. Well, Eris is in the shower now, but you can stick around and have some breakfast if you like. Don't expect anything fancy; I'm no cook, but I think I have some Eggo Waffles in the freezer."

Raphael debated a moment, then nodded. "That sounds great, Mrs. Solomon."

Lily waved off the title as she closed the door behind him. "It's Lily. Mrs. Solomon makes me feel terribly old." She bustled around the kitchen, opening all the cabinets to see where she put plates. Within ten minutes, Raphael had a waffle drenched in syrup in front of him. With a shrug, he began eating. "So, you like my daughter, do you?"

Raphael, who suddenly realized that quick convenience food was sinfully good tasting, choked on his bite of Eggo. "Pardon?"

Lily smiled, pulling out a seat next to him. "I'm not that old, dear. I see the way you look at her when you come over. Just promise me something."

Raphael, wary of agreeing to anything without knowing what it was first, narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"She's been hurt a lot. First with her father, and then with her hair, and the fire… I know she seems tough and well, a little sarcastic" (Raphael snorted at this.) "Okay, very sarcastic, but it's just a protection thing. Don't screw her up like everyone else wants to."

Raphael didn't have much experience with moms, or families in general, but felt this was a remarkably odd conversation to have with the mother of the girl he was attracted to. "Yeah, well…"

Thankfully, Eris chose this moment to appear. Her hair was wet, falling in straggly blue strings around her face, and she seemed to be still in pajamas. Raphael had to admit, he liked her in pajamas more than her usual bulky t-shirt and jeans. Her pajamas showed off a little more skin, with the short shorts that exclaimed 'hottie' in small circular patterns, and a tight tank top emblazoned with a pair of very pink kissing lips.

Oblivious to Raphael, still wearing gloves and socks, she greeted her mother. "Morning, mom. Is Jason up yet?" She dove under the counter, muttering about a never-ending search for cereal.

"No, he was up late last night so he'll probably sleep to eleven. Honey, Raphael is-"

Still sifting through the contents of the lower cupboards, Eris cut her off. "Don't talk to me about Raphael, mom. He is the most insufferable, annoying, dominating little-"

Raphael raised his eyebrows. "Little what?"

There was a yelp of surprise, and Eris's indigo topped head appeared from below the counter. "What are you doing here?"

"School project, remember? I like your shorts."

Eris's cheeks burned red with a potent mixture of embarrassment and fury. She sputtered, incoherently for a couple of seconds, glaring at Raphael and Lily. "It's a conspiracy!" she finally shrieked, racing up the stairs to change.

Raphael was disappointed when she returned wearing her usual plain shapeless clothes. He rather liked the sight of her long, pale legs lilting through the kitchen. "So are you ready to get to work?"

Eris gave him a rather deadly look. "I'm so glad you had breakfast, but not all of us have been so fortunate." She opened the freezer, then gave another smoldering glare to Raphael. "And you've eaten the last waffle. Not a good start to the day."

Lily looked sympathetically at the boy. "Eris is not a morning person."

"So I've noticed," he muttered, dryly.

"I heard that!"

Fifteen minutes later, after Eris had eaten two bowls of cereal and an apple, and Jason had managed to spill a glass of orange juice on her pants (in which case Eris promptly thrust her brother's head into the gently foaming sink of dish soap), Raphael and Eris finally left for the waterfall. Raphael planned to test the extent of Eris's powers.

He had to admit, he gave her a lot less commands than he had anyone else. It just seemed like there was no need for it. She was more than willing to comply without an order. It kind of annoyed him. He liked making people do things they had no desire to do.

"So, are we jumping in again, or climbing down like little babies?" Eris asked, removing her shoes and socks, revealing blue scales along her ankles.

Raphael gave her a long look. They were both sitting on the cliff, and Eris's attention was seemingly captivated by the scales on her feet. Damn her bulky, shapeless clothes, though. They hid her thin figure that he very much wished to see more of. "Can I ask you something?"

She snorted. "I suppose you can, but even if I say no you can make me do it anyway."

Raphael had to try very hard to get that tempting idea out of his head. "You're mom said something about a fire. What was she talking about?"

She shrugged. "It's no big deal. Our last house burnt down. The firefighters said it was an accident, but we knew it was arson. Anyway, you've probably notice Jason is a little protective of me. He thought I was trapped in the house during the fire. It messed him up."

"So where were you?"

Again, Eris shrugged. "I was in the house, but I never let them know that. It was strange; the fire doused wherever I was. I guess that was my power with water at work, but I didn't know it at the time. It was easier to tell everyone I wasn't in the house." She looked anxious. "Come on, are we swimming or not?"

Raphael nodded. "Yeah, just one more thing."

She rolled her eyes, standing up and looking into the pool below. "What?"

"Take your shirt off."

She turned so fast, Raphael had to catch her arm to prevent her from falling. "What!"

Raphael laughed. "You heard me. I think your shirt is annoying. Take it off."

Eris advanced on him, glaring a death-threat. He found it highly attractive. "How can you think a shirt is annoying? What if I said your name is annoying? Would you change that?"

"Actually, you have already told me my name is annoying, and you have changed it. To Rafe," he added, at her baffled stare. "So, that means it's my turn, and I say your shirt is annoying. So, take it off."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

Raphael chuckled. "You do realize even if you refuse I can make you do it anyway." She looked liable to punch him again, but he strongly hoped she didn't. "Come on, your wearing a sports bra. That covers more than most bathing suits."

Eris cheeks burned red. "How do you know I'm wearing a sports bra?"

He smiled, slowly. "We all have our little secrets, don't we?"

Quite deliberately, she spat in his face. As he wiped from his eyes the disgusting glob of saliva he heard a rustle of clothes and a splash. Eris had jumped in the water, but her extra large t-shirt lay behind in a crumbled mass on the cliff. Grinning, Raphael stripped off his own shirt and jumped in after her.

Eris had worked out a game plan in the last night. It bothered her greatly that Raphael had control of her will, and though she agreed to it willingly, she couldn't help but think she was a little (little being code for a lot) insane for agreeing to it. Her plan was to simply do everything he told her, that way he wouldn't be forced to employ that annoying Rafe-echo. Unfortunately, by the looks of it, not all of his commands were going to be G-rated. She smirked to herself as she waited underwater to see Raphael splash in after her. Maybe it wasn't _that_ unfortunate.

"Come on Eris. I know you're here." Raphael was treading water; she could see his legs pumping overtime to keep him afloat. Taking a deep breath of water (she could breathe water! That was so cool!) she swam under him, grabbing him by the ankles and giving them a vicious tug.

Surfacing with a laugh, she helped Rafe to a lip in the cliff that he could sit on. He was such a poor swimmer, and tired much too easily. She was careful to keep her shoulders underwater.

"You're no fun," he muttered, his feet splashing in the water as he sat in the slimy stone.

She beamed at him. "I know!" She swam for a while, and would have kept going had Raphael's voice not popped in her head saying, _Come sit with me. We need to practice._

Her body obeyed without question, and she hauled her body out of the water to sit by her strange companion.

"Enjoy your swim?" he asked.

Eris combed her hair from her eyes with her fingers. "Yes, quite. Now, what are we practicing?"

Raphael licked his suddenly very dry lips. Yeah… she was wearing a sports bra all right. A black one. She was remarkably skinny. "Well actually, you're practicing. I'm just watching. Try to make some waves on the- what's that!" He was examining her smooth, flawless skin only to find that it wasn't so flawless. As her shoulders turned slightly, he saw old scars on her back, and around her waist. She blushed, turning toward him so her back was blocked from view.

"It's nothing. Just some old scars. I was an active kid." She stretched her hand out, and tapped her forefinger in the air. A series of ripples appeared in the water every time she tapped.

Raphael grabbed her shoulders roughly, turning her back to him. He ran his fingers over the scars, tracing the patterns. There was a square shaped burn mark that led into a slivery cut. "These aren't from playing soccer, Eris."

She turned quickly, holding his wrists tightly to stop him from touching her. "I told you, they're nothing."

He was adamant. "They look like whip marks, but with something heated fastened to it. Like a belt buckle or something."

Her bright blue eyes seemed shadowed, haunted. There was something evil lurking in her past, and she didn't want to let it surface again. "It's from falling out of a tree," she muttered.

"Bullshit. Who did this?" He had to know, because once he did, he would kill them.

She turned fast, and Raphael realized that this particular subject was not a good one to speak about with this girl. Eyes alight with fury, he suddenly found himself pinned to the rocky cliff face, Eris standing three feet away, and glaring for all she was worth.

"It- was- an- accident," she said slowly. Raphael tried to move, only to find he couldn't. That's when it occurred to him. Eris was able to control water in any state or form, even if that form was inside the human body. Cool!

_Stop using your powers on me, and tell me the truth._ It took only a moment for his body to drop to the ground. He winced as his rear hit the rocks with a thud.

"It's from my dad. He believed in building character. It's no big deal, really. He walked out years ago."

Raphael's jaw was hanging open. How could she talk about something so terrible like it was a paper cut? "Your father beat you to build character?"

She ran her hands along her arms, feeling terribly vulnerable but resisting the urge to run and hide. "He didn't do it all the time. Just when…" She paused.

"When what?"

"My hair changed color. He thought I kept dyeing it. It was just stupid, okay?" She paused, looking away so Raphael wouldn't see the tears glistening in her eyes. Damn him! Damn him for making her talk about things she would rather forget, and to continue tracing his long fingers over the paths the scars made. Damn him for having such an effect on her! It took all of her will power not to just bawl on his shoulder and let him kiss away her pain. Just damn him to hell and back!

Raphael's fingers sent electric shocks through her spine, but she was able to fight it. Knees drawn up to her chest, her damp hair falling into her eyes, she kept her head turned away from him. She had to. She didn't want to see the look he gave her. It would probably be pity, mixed with disgust for not fighting back. He wouldn't understand though. She couldn't fight back against her father. He was her father! He knew what was best, even if it did inflict such pain on herself.

Slowly, his hands crawled up her back and sidled down her arms, pulling her closer to him. She offered no resistance, leaning against him as if he were her very support for life.

"I'm sorry," he said, after a long while. Eris jumped, for she had been beginning to doze off, feeling so safe in Rafe's arms.

"For what?" she muttered, sleepily, nuzzling closer to him.

"For making you do this. I want you to change back." How could his heart be beating so damn fast? He wanted every inch of her, even the two or so inches that stood above his own height. He never felt remorse for anything he did before, but he did feel it for Eris. He could control her, make her do anything he wanted. He wanted so much, but not like that. Not when he knew, if she refused, he could simply make her. He wanted her to come to him on her own accords, without feeling like she had to.

"What if I don't want to," she mumbled, throwing one arm over his neck.

He sighed, and gently lifted her off of him. She looked annoyed, but was still too sleepy to argue. "I want you to. Change back into your human form."

She did, but reluctantly. She was beginning to enjoy the feel of her second form rather than her human body. It was more natural. With a sigh, she opened her eyes. Raphael was looking at her, rather expectantly. Out of habit, her eyes darted away, to find several people standing on the top of the cliff. "Who are they?"

Raphael had good eyes, and cursed when he saw them. "Godammit!" The other four Mythics were here, and it seemed like they brought a friend. A Hydra from the look of his strange reptilian body frame.

He heard David's voice shout down. "Eris, we're here to help. You're not in Mythic form so just climb up, and we'll talk." Raphael's heart soared. Maybe they didn't see him! Then he heard Isabel's voice.

"Rafey, you get your sorry butt up here, too. I owe you a present."

"Rafey?" Eris asked, eyebrows raised. "Jealous ex?"

Raphael groaned. "I wish."

Eris grabbed his wrist, and dove into the water, pulling him in with her. "Take a deep breath," she ordered, beckoning him to hold onto her shoulders. She changed back, becoming Naiad, and for once feeling like she had a purpose. Closing her eyes, the water around her erupted to life, forming a steady constant jet at the five on the cliff. She dove deep, Raphael holding onto her shoulders. There had to be some sort of fissure in the cliff they could hide in. She needed to find it quickly, for Raphael couldn't breathe underwater like she could.

He pounded her shoulder roughly, and she surfaced. He was gasping for breath. "Sorry!"

"Find it a little faster next time," he muttered, treading water.

It was strange, but she could feel strange clicks hitting the back of her neck. It took her a moment to realize she was hearing the others conversation, carried by the still steady stream of water.

"Raven, change and make her come up here," said a harsh female voice. "I'm tired of this run around."

"Alright, block your ears." Then she heard that voice, that beautiful, perfect, deadly voice beckoning her forward, imploring her to climb back up the cliff. She found herself swimming quickly to where they were, eager to do what the voice told her.

_No, stay right here. _That was Rafe-echo. He was battling with Cool-voice. It was starting to give her a headache.

Come to us…_no, stay. _We're not going to hurt you…_like hell they won't. _You don't really want to be with him…_yes, you do! _

It was like the entire freaking white house had decided to enter her mind and scream and rant about the most heated issues. Her brain had to be melting out through her ears by now. There was no doubt about it. Why did they both have to be so damn loud? She tried pressing her hands to her ears, but that just made it worse, for it made it echo around her head more. Finally, she screamed. "AHH! EVERYONE GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Water thrashed around her in vicious white-capped waves, and Raphael noticed with a kind of distracted anxiousness that it was getting harder and harder to keep his head over water.

And finally, blessed silence. Eris gave a relieved sigh. "Okay, we come up there, no one tries to get in my head, and no one tries to kill us! Agreed!"

There were general nods and sounds of affirmation from above. Eris swam over to Raphael and helped him to the side of the cliff. He was exhausted, his heart beating twice its normal rhythm and could barely stay above water. He was very grateful for her help.

"Alright, lets do this," Eris muttered.

**that is all. i'm still working on the next chpater. and it may take a bit more than a week (my usual update time) because it is a very emotional chapter and i keep putting off writing it. u'll wish u havent read it when u read it , sob**


	10. Chapter 10 Visions

**imagine me. boring old run-of-the-mill me. now, imagine me- the same boring-old-run-of-the-mill me- bawling her boring-old-brown eyes out. i'm such an evil person. evil evil evil. i should be arrested for my evilness. don't beleive me? go ahead and read! u'll agree! o yea, and thanks to everyone who don't think this sucks! it rly isnt getting the popularity i had hoped for... maybe i'm not cut out for humorus narration. i should go back to impassive third party... i rly thought i was making a passable stab at it tho...**

Chapter 10- Visions

Eris reached the top of the cliff first. She was just dragging herself over the last bit of rock when David gave a curt nod to John. The psychic got his meaning and stepped forward to help her up, making sure his hands were placed on bare skin. Not that that was so much of a hard thing, considering her shirt seemed to be lost somewhere in the great wide world.

Raphael was up only a few seconds after Eris, and took in the situation quickly. The first thing he saw was Eris and John. John used to work for him, so he knew better than anyone just how far his powers extended. Touching someone would only enhance it. "Don't let him touch you!"

Eris glared at John and ripped her arms away, but the damage had already been done. Walking back over to David he muttered in his ear. "It's bad."

"How bad?" David asked.

"Real bad. Don't expect her cooperation."

David didn't really mind. He was a patient person. Most people came around to his side eventually. It was just a matter of persistence. That's what he thought as he opened his mouth to speak. Unfortunately, Michael, that bloody Hydra who nearly killed Raven, made a sound first.

The sound was a whistle.

"Hot stuff straight ahead. Come here, Blue. You look a little cold. I'll… argh!" His cry was not of pleasure, but absolute terror. The saliva in his mouth was beginning to freeze, clamping his mouth shut.

Eris was glaring a death threat. "I'm not here to mess around. You have five minutes to tell me whatever it is you want to say. After that, we're leaving and forgetting you even existed. Do I make myself clear?"

Isabel couldn't help but laugh. She liked this girl. She knew how to take control of a situation… and make a guy pay for rude comments and unwanted eyes. "Are you always so friendly?"

Eris turned her head to the curly haired girl with the lazy smile. "Are you always so wet?" Indeed, all five of them were absolutely dripping in water, and any bare skin on their faces or hands was rubbed to a harsh lobster red.

Isabel smirked at the double meaning of the comment. "Only when I'm near Rafey."

A slight smile tweaked the corners of Eris's mouth. "So you're saying you're attracted to girls?"

"Hey!" Raphael shouted in indignation, but the sound was almost completely drowned out by Isabel's hysterical laughter. Eris couldn't help it. She laughed back.

"Alright, what's the deal? Why can't all of us Mythics just get along… you know, like a kind of freaky-genetically-screwed-up family." Isabel snorted loudly at Eris's comment.

"Are you even aware of what this guy has done?"

"Sure, he has some faults but everyone…"

Raven stepped forward, speaking for the first time. "Faults are when you're incessantly stubborn or cowardly." She lifted up the corner of her shirt to reveal pale scars along her rib cage, and up her vertebrae. "These were from Raphael. He Controlled David to make him hurt me. That's a little more than a few faults."

Raphael scoffed. "I wouldn't have had to do that if I thought you would come quietly on your own."

Isabel turned her head sharply. "You're not allowed to talk. Open your mouth again and I'll bite you."

Raphael smiled seductively. "Where?"

Isabel was already changing. "That's it! Come here you little… David, let me go! I'm not going to hurt him. I'm just going to kill him. David! I'll bite you, too! Don't think I won't."

It really was no use fighting against David. Even as a human he was stronger than her Mythic form. His arms wrapped firmly around her own, he had to lift her from the ground a few feet to prevent her from throwing herself at Raphael. Finally, she gave up, her body hanging limp in his arms. Gingerly, he released her.

She sprang back to life, diving for Raphael who only had time to cower backwards before a very tall green creature with snakes hissing angrily on its head tackled him to the ground.

"What's it going to be Rafey. Ruby? No, I don't think so. Onyx, maybe. Nice and rich, like you used to be." She was already glaring into his eyes, letting the stone form on her tongue, when her jaw clamped shut and her eyes closed. It wasn't like when Raphael or Siren Controlled her. This was simply that her body no longer had the strength to resist an opposite force. What was the opposite force, though?

Eris spoke. "I've only been aware of these powers for about a day, so you might want to get up. I wouldn't want to do something I would regret later."

So Naiads controlled water. That was interesting. Medusa stood, and she felt the pressure dissipate from her eyelids and jaw. "He's not worth your protection," she muttered quietly, dangerously. The snakes on her head hissed in affirmation.

"I think it's up to me who I protect. So, if you are only going to lecture me about who I should or shouldn't trust, I'll just leave. I have better things to do with my day."

That was it. That should have been it. Eris should have been able to walk away at that point. A cry of pain stopped her.

She looked to the boy with the psychic powers, whose eyes had suddenly shut in suppressed agony. The redhead was singing softly in his ear, looking worried as to why her gift was not working. Raven looked helplessly to David. "Why isn't it working?"

David looked as baffled as she was. "I don't know. Keep singing, though. This might be important."

"What's wrong with him," Eris asked Raphael, as tears streamed down John's face.

"Who, John? He's having a vision." He said it casually, as if he had seen this a thousand times before.

"Do they hurt?"

Isabel glared in her direction. "Does it look like they hurt?" She had changed from her Mythic form with a little persuasion from David. She was also pissed. Breathing the same air as Rafey tended to do that to her.

Raven stopped singing again. "The vision is too long. Why isn't he normal again? Why isn't my song working?"

Then it struck David. "Your song is working. He's Seeing something that's more painful for you to fix."

Raven, hating that she could do nothing to help John, allowed a helpless sob to escape her. She bottled it in quickly though. Something she quickly learned from Isabel- emotions had a time and a place, and they had to be put away until then. She kept singing.

Eris was in such shock, she forgot about her previous effort to storm back to the car. She had never seen anything like this. Sure, she had friends in her old school, but not like this. None of her friends were so close, so complementary to the other's personality. David was the leader, strong and patient. Raven was their passion, with enough heart in her to light up the world. Isabel had brains and experience, using her quick cleverness and sharp mouth to help. And John…Eris had known him for all of five minutes and she could just tell he was a funny one. Someone that could make everyone laugh. She never had friends like that.

Raphael whispered softly in her ear. "Come on. We can go, and they won't notice."

Absently, Eris shook her head. She felt the insane urge to stay. She didn't know why it was so important, but it was.

Suddenly, John's eyes flew up and he shouted a name. "Isabel!" He was in a panic, and incredibly disoriented from the long vision.

David took up the slack. "What about Isabel?"

John was always very positive. There was always life in his blue eyes. David was genuinely disturbed when the boy looked at him with a blank, dead stare. "She's going to die."

Isabel paled, but refused to be panicked. Panic was for later.

David was still patient, though the panic that Isabel was so cleverly pushing away was currently building up in his stomach. "When? When is she going to die?"

This had never happened before. John had never gone into a trance like state. All he ever had was a vision, and then was perfectly normal. This was definitely not normal. Slowly, a strange lopsided grin pulling at the corners of his mouth, John answered. "Where's the Hydra?"

David could ask no more, because a large weight hit him, throwing him dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. Michael had changed form, becoming Hydra. Unlike the rest of the Mythics, who still looked human when they changed shape, Hydra was completely overcome by the reptilian creature. His torso was elongated and serpentine, and his face thrust forward more. When he opened his mouth to speak, his words came in a strange hiss.

"That'sssss right. Where'sss the Hydra?"

David gulped. He hated snakes.

Isabel, on the other hand, didn't. "Hydra, you idiot! Don't change in broad daylight! Anyone can- argh!" Hydra had reached a clawed hand to clamp around her wrist, yanking or forward before she had a chance to resist. His abnormally long torso wrapped around her middle like a boa constrictor, and he laughed.

"What'sss the matter, Isabel? A little wrapped up?"

Isabel had a few dozen snakes attached to her head. She was quite certain in how to deal with this overlarge one with legs. That is… she hoped she did. "No puns allowed."

Wrong answer! He constricted tighter, making her choke for breath.

The two remaining Mythics (not including John who was currently staring at Hydra with a small knowing smile) dove into action. Instantly Raven changed and began to sing. This caused Hydra to laugh. Isabel gave him a look of sick displeasure.

"No ears," she gasped out.

"She'sss right."

David was instantly forward and transformed, reaching up and slamming Hydra with his shoulder. This was, unfortunately, not the best plan of action, because it sent Isabel reeling back along with Hydra.

"Ussse your powersss and I'll squeeze the life from her ssso ssslowly."

David's head was reeling. Most people when hit with a terrible situation froze. David had never had that problem. He wasn't remarkably clever or quick thinking, but there was a remote part of his brain that always turned on when he needed a plan or a quick solution. Instantly, his quick solution was bestowed. "Raphael!"

Eris hit her head at her own stupidity. She wanted to help, but she had no idea what to do. None of the other's powers would work, and she was still too unstable with her own to use them. Raphael could solve this easily, though. He was a Controller. It was so obvious!

"Use your powers, Rafe. Make him let her go!"

Raphael scoffed. "What, you're on her side now?"

"I'm not on her side, but I don't want her dead!"

Isabel groaned as she felt her ribs break. She briefly debated whether to change into her second form, but another squeeze banished that thought from her mind. Banished any thought from her mind. How could breathing be so damn painful! "What… do you want?"

His forked tongue lowered on her ear. "All in good time. Everything is business. Business as usual."

Her vision was beginning to dim. There was no space for her lungs to expand.

David spoke up, for it was obvious she could not. "Let her go, and we'll talk."

"Talk comesss to late. She mussst pay for what she hasss done."

Isabel coughed, weakly trying to fight her arms loose. "Don't… know you."

He laughed, a dry raspy sound, and released her. She hit the ground, coughing and sputtering, pain shooting through her ribs at every breath. David was by her side in an instant, protecting her. "You want her, you'll have to go through me."

Even in her state of complete agony, she had the ability to give Siren an exasperated look, as if to say '_men_'. Siren gave a shrug and nod of general agreement.

"She sssays she doesssn't know me. Did she know the people she turnsss to ssstone?"

Isabel pushed herself up, still coughing. "Not my fault."

"My brother isss dead! Explain to me how thisss isss not your fault."

For the second time that day, David turned to his greatest enemy for help. "Raphael. Help us!"

Raphael was used to his past catching up with him. He handled it in the best way, too. He ran away. Fled. Hastened with great speed in an opposite direction. However it was said, he had no regrets for it. He only had value for his own life. Why was this time any different?

He was about to turn when Eris grabbed his wrist. "If you don't help her, I will kill you."

On most people, he would laugh and taunt the threat back in her face. With Eris… he believed what she said. _Stop trying to kill Isabel._ He shouted the order with great force to Hydra, and felt it run into a brick wall. His mind was blocked by another Controller. Well, wasn't that shitty? At least he could say he tried.

"It won't work. His mind is blocked." Too bad. So sad. He wondered if he could run now.

Eris's smoldering glare was answer enough. "Then get your ass over there and tell him the truth."

Both Minotaur and Siren were standing in front of Isabel, protecting her from the crashing (and no doubt fairly venomous) teeth of Hydra. Isabel was trying for all she was worth to stand, or even sit up, or possibly breathe… she wasn't too particular. Hydra dove, knocking Siren out of the way but only managing to connect his face with Minotaur's fist. Raphael winced for the serpentine creature. That one had to hurt.

"Stop!" he shouted. _Shit, I'm going to die!_ So much for his long, successful and very rich life. It looked like it was going to end right about here. "It wasn't Isabel. It was me. I'm a Controller."

Hydra paused, and smiled a rather toothy grin in his direction. "Don't think I don't know that. You're next."

With a flexible slither, he slipped over Minotaur, tackling Isabel's futile efforts for mobility to the ground once more. "Say goodbye."

Isabel had to fight for her life a couple times. She was fairly used to living on the edge of death. For that moment though, all she felt was fear. Terrible, mind-numbing fear. She was about to die. There was no way out on this one.

Then something happened. Minotaur threw himself against Hydra, and at the same time Raphael screamed something. "CHANGE BACK!" As the two hit the ground, both fully human, there was a terrible bang from somewhere in the distance. The bang repeated itself.

There was something wrong. David wasn't moving. Michael wasn't either. And what was that strange red liquid spurting from their bodies?

"Shit!" Isabel screamed, realization hitting her. "Siren, fly!" She was already in the air, her wings faster than any pair of human legs. She was by David in an instant.

She recalled what Michael said his power was. Regeneration. Screw him! He was healing before her eyes! "Come on, David. Come on, your stronger than this. You're going to be fine. After all we've been through, a little bullet isn't going to stop you."

Raphael and Eris hurried to help. "I have a car. We need to get him to a hospital."

Raphael wasn't listening. His fingers were on David's neck. "It's too late. He's gone."

Somehow, Isabel had managed to drag herself forward. "Shut up! Shut up all of you! We're going to the hospital."

Raphael looked incredulous, grabbing her wrist to stop her from trying to push David up. "Are you insane? We can't take him to a hospital! He doesn't exist!"

Confusion. Chaos. Michael woke, looking lost. "Where the hell am I? Who are you people? Is he dead!"

John finally came out of his trance, more curses flying from his lips then they ever heard before. "Someone fucked with my visions! Someone_ fucked _with my visions! I was not wrong! I _can't_ be wrong!"

Eris inhaled deeply. "Everyone SHUT UP! Raven, help me get him to my car. The rest of you, go back to my house. There is someone in these woods tampering with our powers."

With David's massive body propped up between them, the two ran through the woods, forgetting the winding trail and going straight through the woods and clawing thorns. They knew it was for nothing, though. It was already too late.

**see what i said about evil. and me. they go hand in hand! waaah! i'm sorry this chapter seriously sucks, but its been a suprisingly suck-ass week (how is it i'm home forsix daysand my mom and i are already fighting? cus i'm the evil child!) i guess my stress just came out in the story that has no plot. has anyone realized that yet? that this suck-ass story has no plot? yur probably waiting for me to show u one, but i'm rly just as clueless as u are. okay! i'm shutting up now. if u've read this oober long authors note in hope of something grandly inspirational...er... stay tuned. next time on reunited...**

**o yea... once again. thanks to all the reviewers. theres not a whole lot of you (v, hetherika, sirenic griffin, meris... there might be another one but i suck at remebering names) but i rly appreciate yur comments. if u have any suggestions or u rly think something iwrote seriously sucked (i'm one of those weird ones who like to hear i'm terrible), fel free to say it. **

**alright! rly shutting up this time!**


	11. Chapter 11 Eris's House

**sorry about the wait (wait for me meaning a week. the horror!) i just got a job. yay! i get paid. whpo cares that i have to work for eight hours folding and taping papers standing the whole time... i get paid! (and yes, i have no more skin on my fingers from the tape rippiong them off). anyway... enjoy! sorry about the cliffy!**

Chapter 11- Eris's House

The door thumped loudly, nearly rattling off its hinges by whoever was knocking. Jason grumbled, throwing his legs off the couch and making his way to whoever was trying to murder the slab of innocent wood.

He was not pleased by who was knocking. "You again! What do you want?" This Raphael kid was bad news. And he seemed to have brought an entire gang of stooges with him this time.

Raphael blinked rather stupidly, as if he had forgotten that something as simple as over-protective big brothers could exist. "Uh… Eris?"

"Are you high? I'm Jason, her brother. You left with Eris hours ago." A slight dawning expression appeared on his face. "What did you do to her?"

Isabel chose this moment to pipe in. "Nothing! We were working on the project. She's gone to get some extra supplies, but she wanted us to get started on the paper. She'll be back in less than an hour." There was a pause, and something that seemed suspiciously like tears glazed her eyes. "She's coming with David."

Jason slammed the door open, letting his house be invaded by a bunch of teenagers. "Yesterday Eris doesn't know a single person, and know she's hosting a house party when she's not even home. Does this make sense? I don't think so." He continued to mutter darkly as he went up to his room. Better stay far away from these creeps. He could interrogate his sister about them later.

Downstairs, Isabel finally collapsed, her strength having dwindled to less than nothing. John was up in an instant. "Do you know where they keep the first aid kit?" he asked Raphael.

Raphael stared, blankly. "What?"

John was very close to punching Raphael. It wasn't enough that Isabel wasn't hiding her emotions like she usually did (and, man, could that girl's guilt scream). It wasn't enough that his vision had been _wrong_. So wrong, in fact, that he had remained in a trance for vital minutes afterward. That wasn't enough. It had to be paired with Raphael's severe incompetence with anything but destruction. "A first aid kit! You know, that thing filled with bandages and aspirin so I can help the girl you just inflicted great pain upon."

Raphael was up in an instant. "Are you saying this is my fault? I didn't fuck up a vision!"

"No, you just stood by and watched while Hydra squeezed the life out of Isabel!"

Raphael let out a cold laugh. "And you were just so much of a help, sitting on the sidelines and smiling as your girlfriend gets thrown from side to side."

Emotions were deafening. John could barely hear anything over so much anger. Solution? Scream louder. "IT'S YOUR FAULT HYDRA CAME FOR ISABEL IN THE FIRST PLACE! YOU KILLED HER IN THE PAST, AND YOU'RE STILL KILLING HER NOW!"

Raphael was not hesitant in taking up the screaming match. "THEN IT'S YOUR FAULT DAVID IS DEAD! YOU KILLED HIM! YOU WERE WRONG!"

"_NO_!" Isabel cried. She was hanging onto control by a slim thread. "Shut up, both of you. Do you hear me? Just _SHUT UP_!" A sob escaped her throat, but she clapped her hand over her mouth to push it back in. David was _not_ dead. He was so strong and steadfast… a bullet could not kill him. Not after all they had been through. Not after all he was to her.

"No! You shut up!" Raphael screamed back at the motionless girl.

John pushed his shoulder roughly. "Don't tell her to shut up! Don't even talk to her! You ruined her life. You've ruined both of our lives."

Raphael bristled from the contact. "Don't touch me, Oracle."

"What? Don't touch you? You mean like this?" He pushed him. "Or like this?" He pushed him again. "Come on, Raphael. I expected more from you."

With a cry of anger, Raphael threw his fist at the psychic. There was a brief scuffle, and soon both were on the floor, attempting to choke each other. Isabel's screams for them to stop quickly turned into a sob. Once more, she pushed it away.

"What the hell is going on down here?" Jason had come downstairs, to see all hell broke loose in the living room. He gave a look to the girl, who seemed to be the only sane one. "Well?"

Her lips were pursed in what might have been an annoyed glare, or might be a suppressed scream. "They're fighting and I can't stand just yet. You might want to separate them."

Jason did just that. It was hard, and he ended up getting a black eye in the process, but he finally got the two on opposite sides of the room. He expected some sort of an explanation, maybe an apology, but the first thing John said was, "First aid kit?"

"What?"

John stood up. "Isabel is in a lot of pain right now. Usually, people have first aid kits in their house to help with that."

"John, I'm fine. It's nothing."

John gave a look to Isabel that might have been incredulous had his brow not been wrinkled in pain. She gulped and silenced herself. Of course John would know if she was lying. He was probably feeling her pain just as she was. "How about that first aid kit?"

They made themselves useful. John bandaged Isabel's bruised ribs, deftly, and then cleaned the various cuts on her face and arms from falling (and being thrown). Any of Jason's questions were curtly answered. If possible, he was more confused after his little interrogation than before. As Jason walked in and out of the room, they made brief plans for what they would do when everyone was back together. As long as the kept themselves functioning and mechanical, they couldn't feel. If they couldn't feel, they couldn't blame. If they couldn't blame, David wasn't really gone.

It was an hour, maybe two, before the door opened again. Eris walked in, her sapphire hair straggly and knotted, followed by Raven, her eyes bloodshot and cheeks red.

They didn't need to say anything. What was there to say? The look on their faces was enough. Isabel sobbed, hating herself for crying but not being able to do anything else. How could something hurt this much?

"Isn't there anything we can do? John asked.

Raven was morose and melancholy. "Do we know any Mythics whose power is to bring back the dead?" At everyone's saddened, lifeless looks, she continued. "Didn't think so."

The loss was past crying, past screaming. Nothing they could do could make them feel anything. A cold numbness crawled through the three Mythics. David, the leader, the man with a plan, the all around good guy… how could they live without him. They couldn't.

Eris, who didn't know David, even felt the blow. This was her life from now on. It could have just as easily been she who was shot. David had wanted to help her, that was it. And now he was dead. Murdered.

Even Raphael, who prided himself on being cold and heartless, felt something, some kind of weird squirming sensation in the pit of his stomach. What was it? Oh right… it was guilt. That was new.

In silence they sat, who knew for how long. It might have been minutes, it could have been hours. Isabel finally broke the silence, but not with words. She pulled from her shoulder bag her laptop and began clicking away at the keys, a furious expression chiseled into her face.

Raven, who was lying on the ground, her arms over her head as if she was hiding from the world, looked up miserably. "What are you doing, Isabel?"

Angrily, she wiped away the tears that were leaking from her eyes. "There has to be a way," she muttered.

"What?"

"A way!" she shouted. "Mythics aren't like humans! There must be some sort of side effect, a perk to having Mythic blood. David didn't kill himself, he was murdered. There has to be something… anything!"

John, a rare scowl wrinkling his brow, gave her an even look. "He's dead. Nothing can change that."

Isabel was not in Mythic form, so her glare could not produce stone. All the same, the look she shot him was the most terrifying he had ever seen. "You're wrong."

Once more, there was silence, broken only by the constant tap of Isabel's fingers on keys. Jason came downstairs, innocently inquiring as to the nature of their school project. Coldly, Raven answered. "We're experimenting with the theory of mortuary return."

"U-huh," Jason said, unsurely.

Eris rolled her eyes. "It means we are trying to bring people back from the dead, you idiot. Now, get lost."

He wouldn't take the hint. "Actually, no. I don't think so. There is something going on here, Eris. I'm not stupid."

"Really? Could have fooled me."

Jason grit his teeth together in anger, and very forcefully grabbed his sister's wrist, pulling her into the adjacent kitchen. "What's gotten into you lately? You're hanging out with that wack-job Raphael, bringing strange depressed kids into the house who you've never met before- yes, I know you never met them before. Like I said, I'm not stupid. What is going on?"

Eris shrugged, pulling her hand from Jason's very hard grip. "I told you, its just this science project. It's been taking a long time."

Jason was incredulous. "You are doing a science project on bringing people back from the dead?"

Eris rose to her full height, coming out of her depressed slouch just for this. While she still couldn't top her brother's height, she was still a very tall girl. "Yes, as a matter of fact, we are."

And that was where she made her biggest mistake. Her brother knew her well, and knew that if he questioned her, her immediate reaction would be something that ended in pain, embarrassment, or both. He raised his eyebrows, and her cheeks reddened in anger. "Look, I'm not going to judge you, no matter what it is that's going on. I just want to know, so I can look after you."

Once again, completely out of character, she slouched, and gazed at him with eyes void of any spark or passion. "You can't look after me. Not anymore."

"Are you on drugs?"

"No."

"Are you an alcoholic?"

"No."

"Are you pregnant?"

"_No_!"

Jason screamed in frustration. "If none of that is the problem, why can't you just tell me?"

She could tell him. It would be easy. He wouldn't believe her, though. Maybe, that was a good thing. "You want to know what the problem is? I'm a Mythic, a Naiad. I can control water in any form, and those depressed freaks in the living room, they're all like me. They all have a second form of a deadly mythological creature and powers that endanger us. We're depressed because one of us was just murdered. Shot. Just like that, he was dead. It could have been any of us. Me, Isabel, Raphael. But it wasn't. It was David. Did you know dying isn't at all like it is in the movies? There are no last words or heroic final stand. You're just gone. You don't get to say goodbye, or tell your girlfriend you love her, or your best friend not to cry. There's no time. So, now there is some other freak like us screwing up our powers and shooting us and I guess he or she wants us to die, but that makes no sense cause he had more than enough of a chance today. And… yea, that's just about it." She said it all like the sarcastic reply she would usually say. A rather long sarcastic reply, but one all the same.

Jason stared at her a moment, a blank look on his face. The blank look quickly molded into something else. Anger. Fury. Outright pissed-off-ness. He lifted a hand, and time suddenly slowed down for Eris. She saw Jason's fist raise, saw it come closer to her jaw in a backhand, but it seemed as if she was detached from her body. It was like watching a home video that caught her falling down the stairs or tripping over a chair. Watching it, all she could say is 'Wow, this is really going to hurt', but it would make no difference. She would still fall down the stairs. Or get backhanded by her older brother.

When his fist hit her jaw, time exploded into focus again. She was on the floor, and her lip was bleeding. Actually, gushing was a more appropriate term. She stood slowly, glaring at her brother. An inch away from his face, her hands clenched in anger, she wanted to hit him back. She really wanted to hit him back. There was more important things to do, though. Deliberately, she spat in his face, the spit mixing with the blood running down her chin. "Piss off, Jason."

She washed her face off, but regretted that she did. She actually looked better with the blood on her face. It hid the purple bruise and fat lower lip. Then she returned to the living room, not resisting the urge to shove past her brother with great force.

"Finally," Isabel said when Eris returned. "We have to go. What happened to your face?"

Eris flipped her hand in what might signify nonchalance. "It's nothing. Where are we going?"

There was a fervent, desperate look in all of their eyes. It wasn't hope; nothing that primal could be considered hope. It was need, necessity. There was a way, and nothing on this earth could stop them from taking it. Nothing. "We're testing our theory of mortuary return," Raven said. "It means we're bringing David back from the dead."

Somehow, Eris didn't think it would be that easy.


	12. Chapter 12 Mortuary Return

**i figured, since school was starting, i better read all the books i can now, since i wont get another chance to read till... uh... thanksgiving. that was the reason for the long wait. i'll still try to be prompt on updates, but if uhave to wait for more than a week... very sorry. i'll do my best, tho. **

**o yea.. and thanks so much to sirenic griffin who toldme about that whole medusa bringing ppl bavck from the dead thing. this is my own little spin on it but all the same, it got my writers butt in gear. **

**and of course, thanks to the rest of the ppl who reviewed. u guys rock! **

Chapter 12- Mortuary Return

David's body was in the forest. Raven and Eris could not bury him. It was too final. So they drove as far as they could go, then took the short hike to where they had left him.

"How are we doing this, anyway," Eris asked.

As the other three looked so focused, Raphael replied. "We figured out that Isabel has another power that we weren't aware of."

"You mean other than turning people to stone and having poisonous snakes attached to her head." She had had a long conversation with the other Mythics, long enough to realize that her power totally sucked. Siren could fly and control people's will. Oracle could see the future, create realistic illusions, not to mention his ability to hear emotions. And Minotaur… well, super-strength was just plain cool. Compared to them, controlling water was so boring.

"Yeah, other than that." He said no more, so Eris was left to make her own assumptions. There was silence as they walked, Raven, Isabel and John in the lead, Eris and Raphael lagging a little ways behind them. They were severely out of place among their grief, and felt they should be given their space. Not to mention all three of them could kill them without much effort on their part. "So, your father really did that to you? Abused you?"

Eris, who was lost in her own thoughts, was taken by surprise. "You're still on about that, are you?"

Raphael said nothing, but reached out to brush her lower lip, which felt to be roughly the size of an obese garden slug. "So who did that to you? Jason?"

Eris knocked his hand away, and gave him a cold even stare. "I'm not made of glass, you know. And I can take care of myself."

"I never said you couldn't." Once more, he fell into silence. It didn't last long. "When did you say your father started abusing you?"

"When my hair changed color," she replied, shortly.

"And when did he leave?"

Eris was very close to physically hurting Raphael. Someone had just died a few hours ago and they were on a mission to bring him back to life. All Raphael could do in that time was interrogate her on a past she would rather forget. "Why are we having this conversation?"

Raphael rolled his eyes. "Just answer the question."

Eris tried to bite her lip, but it didn't work as well as she hoped. "It was about a year after, I think. Give or take a couple months."

"Just one last question, I promise."

It was Eris's turn to roll her eyes. "What?"

"Did you always used to dress like that?"

Eris gave a soft, indignant cry. "What's wrong with the way I dress?" Then she remembered before, four years ago, when her style had been as distinct as her personality. She wouldn't be caught dead in an oversized t-shirt that was for sure. "No, I used to have a rather flashy style, but I stopped needing the attention after… well, you know."

Raphael was saved from replying by the other three Mythics. They had stopped. "Right. Here we are."

Eris and Raven had developed a makeshift shrine for David. It was impossible for them to leave him without anything, so they had laid him on the ground as if he were a sleeping prince, and rested a slender branch of an oak tree across his chest.

"What do you have to do," Eris asked Isabel.

Isabel looked nervous. "I have to bite him. Or at least, one of my snakes does."

Raphael seemed to be as incredulous as Eris. "Are you sure this is going to work? I mean, I've been bitten by one of those snakes. It wasn't exactly something to be described as high on life."

Isabel shot him a glare. "Look, you were the one who found the myth. It said the poison is deadly to the living and life to the dead. That seems pretty self-explanatory." She paused a moment, kneeling by David's pale form. "It's not like he has anything to lose."

She was about to change when Eris interrupted her. "Wait!"

"What?" Both Isabel and Raven snapped at the same time, hitting her with very different, but equally terrifying glares of impatience.

Instinctively, she grabbed Raphael's wrist in fear. Isabel and Raven could be downright _scary_ sometimes. "Look, we know that before, someone screwed up our powers. Well, since he didn't seem to have any hesitation in shooting David, who's to say we might be next?"

"What are you saying, exactly," John asked, a hollow, deadened look in his eyes.

"All I'm saying that a power like that means there is another Controller around. I know that two of you already are Controllers, and Controllers' powers don't work on John, but Isabel and I are still at risk."

"What do you want to do?"

Dear God, Raven was asking her what she wanted to do. Raven was asking her! As if she wasn't the rookie who knew next to nothing about her powers or how to survive. "We should all change in our second forms to keep a guard for Isabel. And is there someway we can't be seen?"

"I can sing," Raven said. "It won't make us invisible, but anyone who sees us will just forget what they're looking at."

Eris shook her head. "No, we might need your voice for something else."

"What about an illusion," John suggested. "Again, its not actually invisibility and my powers are all screwed up right now, so you'll still be able to walk through it, but…"

"Sounds perfect."

So, after John had created a dome-like illusion of the scenery minus five teenagers and one dead body, Raven, Isabel and Eris changed into their Mythic form. Raphael created a fury, just in case.

"Right, I only have one shot at this, so you better get it right." Medusa was talking to her snakes, stroking their smooth skin with her fingertips and letting them coil around her neck and shoulders. "I love him, that's why. Yes, it is reason enough. I know you can bring him back so don't say you can't. But the myth says… no the myth is not wrong! Then just try. He can't get any worse. He can? How? Oh…"

Eris leaned over to whisper softly in Raphael's ear. "She can talk to snakes?"

"Creepy isn't it?"

Eris couldn't help but agree but did not reply. Medusa continued to talk with her snakes, though it still sounded remarkably like an in-depth conversation with herself.

"Shit!" she cursed suddenly. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

"What's wrong?" Siren asked, her voice soft so not to interfere with anyone's will power.

Medusa sat back, utterly defeated, resting her head miserably on her knees. "I can't do it." There was so much in that one little phrase. Submission, defeat, acceptance… The serpents hung in motionless, pitiful strands of vibrant scales, pathetically limp against Medusa's shoulders. Even they felt the pain, and they had separate minds than she.

Siren stepped forward, fire in her predator eyes. "What do you mean you can't do it?"

Medusa looked up. There was something strange in her eyes. Wetness was all over her green tinted skin. She was crying! "I can't do it. Not to David."

When Siren spoke, there was music in her voice. It was not a pleasant kind of music either. "Medusa, I swear to God, if you don't do it, I will make you. Don't think I won't." Where Medusa had acceptance and blinding pain, Siren possessed numb refusal. There had to be a way. There was always a way. David was her best friend; he was there for her just as she was for him. Now, he needed her and she was helpless.

For once in her life, Medusa offered no resistance, no fight. She curled her knees tighter to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "The myth was wrong. They're always wrong. You know that."

"You can't bring him back?"

She gave a laugh, but it was a harsh laugh, void of humor. "Oh, I can bring him back, but he won't be David anymore. David is already gone."

John spoke for the first time. "What do you mean?"

"We were too late, alright? If my poison is to bring life to the dead, it has to be done before the life in him moves on. If my snakes were to bite him now, he would be here in body, but nothing else."

Siren sobbed, the numbness in her beginning to break, just as it had done for Medusa. Just as it was doing for Oracle. The cry brought pain to the others. "Can't you just try?"

Medusa continued crying. It was amazing how easy letting go was. She couldn't stop. "We're not God. We're not supposed to be. Who knows what could happen if I do this."

Siren was standing, pacing, walking dangerously close to the edge of the dome. "Then Michael, Hydra. He can regenerate. He healed from that bullet wound instantly. We could, he could… there must be something!"

John stood, wrapping his arms around her. "There's nothing we can do." He said softly. It hurt, it hurt so deeply and terribly, but it was the truth. Every sob that Siren let out was laced with power and pain. It was a toxic mix. Quite soon, the dome had disappeared, and the freaks of the world- Medusa with her green skin and writhing hair, Siren with her crimson wings and deadly voice, Raphael and his fury, and Eris with her scales- were visible for all eyes. It was not the world's eyes that troubled Eris, though. It was her brother.

She abandoned the others to meet him. She was wary, remembering only too well their last meeting. She wondered how the other Mythics dealt with family. A secret such as this was a pretty big one to hide; especially from the people she loved the most. That's when it occurred to her. What real reason did she have to keep it a secret? Sure, she could take him over to Siren, she would sing a song and he would leave, completely forgetting about this strange sight. But to what point and purpose? Telling Jason the truth (minus the sarcasm) would be hard. He deserved it though. He deserved to know the truth.

Jason's eyes were wide with shock. "I followed you," he said, blankly. "To apologize."

"To spy on me," she corrected, automatically. Confession or no, he was still her older brother, and it was still her duty to keep him in check.

"Wh-who did this to you?" He lifted her hand, examining the iridescent blue scales spread across her wrist and thumb.

"No one. Well, at least no one that could help it. It's a genetic trait, a gene. It appears randomly throughout the generations, but it will always appear on the thirteenth birthday of a child born on the thirteenth."

"Why?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"These people…"

"Are like me. I'm sorry I didn't tell you and mom. I know I should have, but… well, look at me."

Jason, still looking numb and lost, neglected to comment. "I… uh… what is it you people do again?"

"I control water. Raven controls people's wills and flies. Isabel creates stone, and has very poisonous snakes that we've just learned also makes zombies. Raphael has these weird, freaky pets called furies that appear whenever he gets pissed off, and he can control other Mythics when they're in form."

Numbness. Maybe, in another hour or two, Jason might start the process of acceptance (denial being the first step), but that seemed a long way off. "Uh-huh. And this Raphael kid, has he controlled you?"

"Frequently."

"Right." He began walking forward, pushing his sleeves up past his elbows. His legs stopped moving suddenly. Eris had her hand out, in a motion that said stop.

"Look, he hasn't hurt me. He's helped me. They all have. Just go home, I'll talk to you and mom then. We're having a… problem here."

For once in his life, Jason did not ask questions. A person could only take on so much at one time. His brain had surpassed the point of asking questions, of accepting or denying. All he knew was that his sister, his little sister that he always tried so hard to protect, was now beyond his protection. She was a part of something different, bigger. He wanted to do something about it, wanted to. But couldn't. Wouldn't. There was no way he could help her. He was entirely too shocked to even attempt to disagree with her. He turned around, beginning the trek home in a distracted daze.

Eris didn't return to the others immediately. They deserved their chance to grieve. Instead she lay under a tree, indigo hair falling into the leaves and brush of the forest floor. She gazed morosely into the distant gray sky, absently forming a floating globule of water from the moisture in the air. If she concentrated, she could make the particles of the water movie faster, henceforth making it boil. She got scared when she turned it to ice, for it dropped suddenly due to its weight. She melted it quickly. It splashed on her face.

And of course, Raphael chose this exact moment to join her. He suppressed a laugh. "Why did you let Jason go? Siren needs to sing for him, to make him forget."

Eris pushed herself up on her elbows, but quickly decided it took too much strength to remain that way. She flopped gracelessly down again. "I don't want him to forget."

Raphael sat beside her, using the tree as a support for his back. "Why?"

Eris closed her eyes, deliberately blocking Raphael from sight. "Seems like something he should know, that's all."

She heard the leaves rustle as Raphael moved, and a shadow filter the sunlight from her close eyes. "Eris, look at me." She did, opening her eyes to see Raphael's face hovering mere inches away from her own. "Why?"

He was doing that thing again, making her feel vulnerable and exposed, her secrets and emotions and desires all out there in the open where he could see them. She wished he would stop. His closeness was suffocating, his danger was choking… and at the same time, she wanted it. This realization struck her harder then anything that had happened in the past couple days, and she was filled with the sudden need to hide.

Raphael was looking at her expectantly, waiting for his question to be answered. Then he blinked a couple times, confused. "Eris?" He patted the ground a few times until his pale hand rested on her chest.

"What!" Eris snapped. Weird thing, she really didn't want Raphael boob-grabbing right now. She sat up suddenly, and Raphael flustered looking around wildly, his arms outstretched like a blind man's.

"Eris, you're invisible."

Oh, right. In all the excitement, she completely forgot that Mythics have more than one power. Her second one happened to be invisibility. Funny thing was, she couldn't seem to control it. "Sorry," she muttered, and had a kind of sick thrill knowing that Raphael would look like he was talking to himself if he replied. _Okay, I want to be seen again. Is that how it works? Look at me, look at me! Hey, I'm visible. Abra cadabra ala kazzam. _"Can you see me now?" He shook his head. "How do I become visible again?"

"What made you become invisible?"

Eris was suddenly glad he couldn't see her, for a very dark blush burned her cheeks. "I wanted to hide." So, try to not hide. Well, that was stupid. She told Jason the truth about her so she wouldn't need to hide from the remainder of her family. If she had enough strength to do that, why did she have to hide from Raphael?

"Finally," Raphael said when she was visible again. "It's weird talking to my…" He trailed off suddenly, looking over to John with a curious expression. He was having a vision. Eris, remembering only too well the product of the last vision, stood up, walking towards then at a brisk pace.

John snapped out of it quickly, looking immediately in their direction. "Eris! Duck!"

Eris stared blankly. She was not the kind of person to do something without a reason why, and she was still too new to this world to know that when John said something, you listened. No questions asked.

Raphael, on the other hand, wasn't. She was much to far away for him to tackle to the ground, but he had access to several Mythics' powers. "Siren!"

Needing no further command, she gave a hurried shriek of a note. The effect brought Eris to her knees in pain, not a moment before a bullet rushed past where her head had been a moment before.

"Shit!" Raphael cursed. "Eris, hide!" She looked at him, fear freezing her sapphire eyes. "Hide!"

Just like that, the spot that was once Eris was swallowed up by the surrounding scenery. Raphael sighed in relief, but did not let it last long. He closed his eyes, summoning a fury. The other had disappeared with his lack of concentration. The same would not occur for this one. "Find the other Controller," he ordered the creature. It gave a shriek then obeyed.

He made a bolt for the others, knowing they would have a better job fighting an attacker if they were together. He stumbled, hitting the ground just as the gun went off again. He cringed, closing his eyes in dread, but the bullet never struck.

"You're an idiot, you know that," came Eris's disembodied voice. A warm hand was tucked under his elbow, pulling him to his feet. Around them was a floating bubble of thick ice. Eris appeared.

"How long will this last?"

"How the hell should I know?"

Raphael's eyes moved quickly as he collected the given data for an escape. "Waterfall. Make a waterfall that moves with us."

"What good will that do?"

Three consecutive bullets hit their icy sanctuary, causing tiny fractures to spread along the surface. "Just do it!"

"Hold your breath," Eris muttered, willing the moisture in the air to form a waterfall worthy of Niagara Falls around them. When a bullet entered the moving anomaly, it was crushed into the ground before it could do any damage.

They reached the others quickly, and Eris dispersed the waterfall before it drowned Raphael. Soaked and disoriented as they were, they didn't realize something terribly wrong with the other Mythics.

"We can't control our powers," Medusa hissed. "Go!" Her eyes flashed and Eris felt the cool respite of stone claiming her. Medusa squeezed her eyes shut, and Eris found herself mobile again.

"Eris, we have to go," Raphael said, catching her elbow and dragging her away.

"No! We can't leave them like this."

"We can do nothing for them if our powers are being controlled too. Come on!"

They ran, away from the other Mythics, away from the gun and the bullets and the Controller who could use their powers, but not their will. Ears blocked, eyes closed, they ran blindly through the forest.

Their procession was halted suddenly, as a long serpentine tail tripped them, sending them skidding in the brush. Eris rolled over quickly, just in time to see the other creature Hydra, pouncing for her. Instinctively, she became invisible, rolling away quickly. Faster then she knew she could move, she bolted for Raphael. She was invisible. While she couldn't make him invisible as well, she could certainly cover him with her own. Tackling Raphael to the ground, she silently thanked several things. One, Raphael was quite short. Two, she was quite tall. And three, Raphael seemed to be thinking on the same lines as she was, and did not move.

"Where are you, little Erisss? Raphael?" Hydra slithered to a standing position, and began to brush leaves here and there. "Niccce little trick, there. He will be pleased." He continued to kick leaves. Eris struggled to maintain her invisibility and keep the leaves from falling on her at the same time. It was hard, for there wasn't much water in the dried, crispy leaves and she couldn't see all of them with her head and arms hiding Raphael. "Come out, come out wherever you… there you are."

Eris's body constricted in fear. Smoothly, Raphael pushed her off of him and summoned a fury. It clashed its steely beak in Hydra's direction. "Come on!" He gripped her wrist and they continued running, until…

"Argh!" Raphael screamed, falling to his knees in pain. "He's trying to Control me. Keep going." Eris hesitated. "Go!" He repeated the order in her head, and still in her Mythic form she had no choice but to obey.

Her breath was coming out in uneven, desperate puffs. A stitch was firmly imbedded in her side. She paused, catching her breath.

And that's when it happened. That inkling sense that something important was being taken away from her. She fought it, yanking it back and snarling at the invisible enemy. It was painful, this kind of Control. Because it only extended as far as her powers, the rest of her body instinctively resisted. Tears watered her eyes, and against her will the tears floated effortlessly in midair, suspended like watery diamonds.

"That's it. There's no reason to fight. Not anymore."

That voice. She knew that voice. It made her feel dread, horror, pain and the desire for acceptance all at the same time. It brought back memories. Painful memories. The scars on her back tingled as if to prove it.

Revealing himself from the trees was none other than Julian Solomon. Her father.

"No!" she screamed. And kept screaming. Nothing would make her stop.


	13. Chapter 13 Water Doesn't Have Eyes

**in case u havent noticed, i deleted my ending. i got some complaints about it and took them very seriosuly. so, after a lot of thinking and scribbling and typing and deleting, i have another chapter with a couple added twists. best part is, its not the end anymroe. there will be a couple more chapters after thsi. **

**thankyou very much to sirenic griffin for telling me that last chapter was beyond salvation. i agree with u totally. and of course v... who agreed. and mistress marionette. yur reviews make me laugh so much! **

Chapter 13- Water Doesn't Have Eyes

_Beep… Beep… Beep._

Eris opened her eyes blearily, to find herself securely tied to a cot. There was an IV in her wrist, but she couldn't read what the package said. Her eyes seemed so heavy. Too heavy. The beep of the heart monitor continued, like a mechanic lullaby. Sleep seemed inevitable.

_Beep… Beep… Beep._

Somehow, despite the constant niggling pain in her body, and the slow fuzziness in her brain, she knew she had to get that IV out of her. The desire for action was the only thing keeping her from succumbing to unconsciousness. She wiggled her fingers, only to feel stiff, aching pain in her hands and wrists. They were bound too tightly for her to move.

Was plastic permeable? There was no liquid in the IV tube that she could control, to get the needle out of her arm. If plastic was permeable, she could just make the medication leak to the floor.

Her fingers twitched involuntarily in pain, but she was still too groggy to evaluate her injuries. The IV. Get rid of the IV and everything would be better. Unconsciously, she remembered dissecting a frog in biology. She suddenly felt really bad for the frog.

Glaring at the IV bag, she ordered the liquid to disperse through the plastic. Nothing happened. She tried to form a ball of water to throw at the IV stand. Still, nothing happened. It was getting harder and harder to keep her eyes open. Maybe if she just rested for five minutes…

No! She must get the IV out of her. She couldn't remember why, but it seemed pretty important. Wriggling around, distractedly blessing the fact that she was abnormally skinny, she freed one leg from the leather strap binding it. Clumsily, she whipped it around, swinging it off the side of the bed. There was a sharp pain in her foot as it collided with the IV stand, sending it to the floor, and a rather painful sensation of an IV needle being unceremoniously wrenched from her arm.

Her job complete, she closed her eyes and slipped into darkness.

There was no way to judge how much time had passed. When she woke for the second time, it was not to a pleasant feeling of grogginess. There was a slowly building pain that was piercing her unconscious. She woke to the most mind-numbing agony she had ever experienced.

The IV! She wanted it back! It made the hurt go away. Her hands were on fire! Her feet seemed as if acid was being poured over them. There was a nasty wet feeling on the back of her neck, paired with a comfort equivalent to a bed of cacti. Using her powers, she untied the straps binding her to the cot, sitting up in a blind panic.

Her hands! Her white skin was marred with deep pinpricks, sending spasms of cramps into her hands when she moved them. That wasn't the worst of it though. There was a large gaping bloody gap along her wrist and thumb. The skin where her scales had been was completely torn off. The wounds were not cleaned or dressed, so dried, crusty blood crawled halfway up her forearms. Her feet and neck were in a similar state.

All grogginess and confusion was gone. Now all she felt was panic. She should do something, anything. Wrap up her wounds, figure out where she was, look around the room… but all she could do was sob and stare at her tortured body. Why would anyone do this to her!

A sudden groan caught her attention. She looked up from her own misery to see she was not alone. There were two other cots in the room, each with a familiarly tortured face.

Was it Isabel or Medusa? Eris couldn't tell through the blood. It was everywhere. Her curls were soaked in it, or was it the snakes? It dripped over her forehead and into her eyes. There was a patch on her forearm where the skin had been roughly ripped off.

Raven's state was no better. The arms that rested limply by her side were covered in pocked and bloody cuts. Her neck and shirt were soaked as well. Someone had ripped out her feathers.

Eris needed to take out their IV as well, but she found herself hesitating. Never was she so thankful that the change she made as a Mythic was so minor. (Because it was obvious that whatever Julian wanted, it had to do with their Mythic qualities). If she took out their IV containing anesthetic, they would have to bear the full weight of the pain. Leaving any plans of escape until later, she began to make a plan for helping her friends.

Conveniently, though no bandages were placed on them, it wasn't for lack of availability. Wherever they were, this particular room was a fully stocked hospital room. She washed herself off in the sink, applied a stinging disinfectant that nearly killed her with agony, and wrapped up her own injuries. Then, she hobbled over to Raven and Isabel, tools in hand.

They had cut Isabel's snakes. Some seemed severed off entirely. Others were split in various places. They slithered sluggishly, lacking even the strength to hiss as Eris approached. Eris gulped. She would need to patch up every one of these venomous snakes before she took the anesthetic away.

"Okay, snakeys, I know you don't really like people, but if you want me to help, you have to promise not to bite me." She felt incredibly foolish, speaking to mortally injured serpents attached to a girl's head, but decided that since Isabel spoke normally when talking to her snakes, they must understand language. To her surprise, an uninjured snake rose from among the others, and gave her a deliberate nod. She assumed that meant she had permission to care for them. "Okay, this is going to sting. A lot."

It took a long time, even longer than would be normal because she had to continue stopping to nurse her own injuries. Finally though, Isabel was patched up. She removed her IV, and moved on to Raven.

Raven was trickier. As her arms were still shaped as wings, albeit lacking feathers, she couldn't bandage the wounds. With the blood cleared away, she noticed that her left arm…wing, was probably broken. The cuts were many, but at least shallow. She was no doctor, and especially not a veterinarian, so she had no idea how to set a bone, let alone a wing. She had been an active and accident prone kid though, and knew how to pop a jammed joint back in place. She hoped setting a bone worked the same way.

Isabel woke as Eris was working on Raven. She screamed and sobbed, but Eris was too focused on Raven to notice. She assumed that Isabel had changed back into her human form when she joined her side, lacking snakes.

"How are you?" Eris asked, for the fifth time going to the sink, and refilling a pan with fresh water. Her feet were aching and she couldn't even feel her hands anymore. She preferred actually feeling the pain, for the numbness made her clumsier.

"My scalp is all torn up, and I've just discovered it is possible for your hair to hurt." She winced as she poked at a ratted curl. "Or at least mine does." She picked up a bandage and helped Eris with Raven.

"You can't cut your hair, can you?"

Isabel shook her head. "Nope. My hair doesn't grow, either. I'm stuck with the same hairstyle for the rest of my life."

They removed the IV from Raven's wrist and waited for her to wake up. "Guess that sucks, doesn't it?"

"Not really. When you know that your hair is actually some of the closest friends of your life, you don't mind as much. I would think blue hair would suck worse."

Eris fingered at the strands. She noticed it was ragged, as if someone had randomly shorn off pieces. "Nah, I kind of like it. It's fun."

They were about to die, without a doubt, and they were having a conversation about hair. Life was full of surprises.

It wasn't until Raven woke up, changed back into a human, and Isabel and Eris finished bandaging her arms, did they begin to think about getting out. This was actually very easy, considering the door was open.

"Um…ok. I know I'm new to the whole flee for your life thing, but is this normal behavior?" Eris asked. She leaned against the door frame to take some of the weight off her feet. Raven was hugging her arm close to her body. Isabel seemed to sway from dizziness. They weren't exactly what one would call battle ready.

Raven glanced up and down the hall, and saw no one. "Look, we need to find the boys, then get out of here. Any ideas?"

Isabel wanted to say that David could have figured something out, but even thinking about David made her hurt even worse than her head. "Maybe if we understand why that Controller is doing this," Isabel suggested. "We can have a better idea of what to do."

Raven made a strange movement with her head, halfway between a shake and a nod, and tucked a stray strand of red hair behind her ear. "As long as we talk and walk. I'm worried about John." She didn't say Raphael, and no one expected her too. Just because they had a common enemy did not mean they were friends.

They started down one hall, Eris invisible and Raven softly singing a song to make Isabel and herself unseen. "The Controller, I… I know him," Eris said, softly. This was hard, talking about her father. It was one of those things she's rather not think about. "His name is Julian. He's my father. We ran away from him years ago, but I guess he's found us again."

Raven couldn't speak as she was singing, so Isabel took up the counter-argument. "Why would he want us then? And what's the point to this." She pointed to her head. "And this." She gestured to Raven's arms. "And this." She motioned to Eris's hands and feet. "It makes no sense."

_Put it together, Eris. Just put it all together. The reason. The reason for all of this._ "When he was controlling us, he could only use our powers. Our bodies were still functional."

"Yeah?"

Eris wasn't remarkably good at anything. She wasn't a dancer or a singer. She couldn't paint and was bad in math. She could eat a lot, but that didn't really count. One thing she could do was understand her father. She had spent a year of her life in the shadow of his cruelty, and quickly developed a knack for figuring out his game plan and running like all hell in the other direction. She considered this one of those times. "I bet he's pissed that his power sucks so bad. That's why, when this," she lifted a strand of hair distractedly, though neither Raven nor Isabel could see it. "And he hurt me… it was… Oh my God was it that simple?"

"When you feel like making sense," Isabel prodded the disembodied voice of Eris.

She gripped the girl's shoulders in a sudden light. "Don't you see? He hit me because it was the only way he could control me. He didn't know what my power was, so how could he control it."

"Still doesn't explain the science experiment."

Eris nodded, distractedly. "You're right. But what if…" She looked at her hands, then at Raven's arms, the Isabel's head. He had taken from them the most distinguishing trait of their Mythic form. In biology, when they wanted to do a mold experiment, they had to first find an original source of the mold to breed it. Something to start with to make it grow. "He's trying to make us. He's trying to make a Mythic, except a kind that he can control. That's why the guys aren't here with us. Neither of them have a second shape."

Isabel said nothing. It made sense. "You're sure about this?" She would look into her eyes to see if she held any doubt, but that was impossible given she couldn't see her eyes.

"Yes."

"Then we better find the guys fast." She racked her brain for an idea, but nothing bestowed itself. The three of them had battle powers, not searching powers. They needed John to help them find John. Or David to come up with an idea.

_Think,_ she ordered herself. None of their powers would be incredibly helpful in this situation. Their heightened sense wasn't aiding either. Isabel had the ability to taste scents, feelings, and objects in the air, much like a snake felt for sound vibrations with its tongue. Raven had an acute sense of sight to compensate for flying at great heights. She could also see in the dark. A nice trick, but no help now.

"Eris, what's your trick?"

"My what?"

Isabel rolled her eyes, forgetting that Eris had only been aware of this life for a few days. "Your trick with your senses. Is there something you can do that doesn't seem normal, but isn't actually a power?"

Eris shrugged. "I can always find water," she suggested, hoping it would aid the older girl in some way.

Isabel groaned. A whole lot of help that would be. Why, with their combined efforts, they would be able to find, see, and taste the plumbing of the entire building. A light bulb suddenly sparked in her brain. "Eris, make the water in the pipes look for them."

"But…" Eris stuttered, lamely. "Water doesn't have eyes."

Isabel and Raven shared an exasperated look. The way they learned about their powers was to test them. Unfortunately, most of the times they had to test them, was a time of grave peril. Eris, apparently, didn't know that yet. "Look," Isabel said as patiently as possible. "Just try to make your water search for the feel of Raphael. You have spent enough time together, you should have some sort of imprint of him in your head. I know you've never done this before, but it's the only way we can find the others and get the heck out of here."

Eris nodded and placed her hand on the wall. Instantly, she was sucked up into the spin of water just behind the paint and plaster. _Find Rafe. Find John. Where are they?_

Hardly a minute later, Eris appeared so she could look at the other two girls properly. "They're looking for us, just around this hall. We're about to run into them."

Isabel nodded, clapping her on the back, and Raven gave a wink and smile of approval through her song. "Become invisible again. Raven's song isn't fool-proof."

"There's no need," Eris muttered, trotting forward to quickly to meet Rafe. She was worried about him. How weird was that.

"Why not?"

"Cause we're the only one's in the building," Eris called over her shoulder.


	14. Chapter 14 But No Pressure

**guess what everyone! im updating my story instead of doing my ap calculus homework. isnt that awesome! but see, i figure when ive been working on it for three hours, have only done three problems, and two of them i cant even figure out how to finish... there is something wrong. i must be stupid. long hand derivitaves to find the equation of the tangent slope of a swirly line... that should be easy!**

**it would make me very happy if everyone reviewed. very very happy. i'm serious. this calc is impossible. i'm not a math person! why did i have to take ap! waaah!**

Chapter 14- But No Pressure

"What do you mean, we're the only ones in the building?"

Eris glanced back, distractedly. "I mean, everyone is gone, but us. See? WAAAOOO!" She tilted her head back and let out a wild, crazy scream. Raven and Isabel, nerves already on the edge, nearly fainted at her spontaneity.

"She's going to kill me," Raven muttered, clutching her fluttering heart, no sooner than Eris began testing the acoustics of the hallway.

"Hello-ello-ello!" She cocked her head to the side, admiring how well the sound traveled. "HELLO-ELLO-ELLO!" She screamed, a little louder this time. _HELL-_" Her third, and what she hoped was the loudest scream, was suddenly cut off. Raphael and John had bolted from around the corner, and Raphael's hand was now firmly pressed against her mouth.

"I think we can do without the voice lesson…Argh!" He ripped his hand away; as Eris had just found it appropriate to hock a very large loogie in his palm. "That's disgusting!"

Raphael and John had been wandering the halls for hours, with no sign of an exit, window, staircase, or elevator. John and Raphael had woke in a crumbled mess on the floor. As soon as they were conscious they began to search. For some reason, despite all this, despite Eris's generous donation of saliva in his hand, he could only think of one thing.

It could hardly be considered romantic. Desperate, maybe. Craving, perhaps. But romantic? No.

Fingers curled through the belt loops of Eris's jeans, those annoying oversized jeans that hid her long willowy legs, Raphael pulled her forward. He didn't know how it happened, but suddenly his mouth was pressed against hers. He needed to stop. He had to stop. But kissing Eris was just so damn easy.

Hungrily, he kissed her harder, knowing she was going to hurt him soon. Very soon. For some unknown reason, he didn't care. A countless number of hours without her were like torture. He needed her! He had to be able to know she was his, right there with him where he could watch out for her. He had thrown her into a world she wasn't ready for, and a strange feeling of guilt had spread through him from his actions.

Her hands trailed along his chest, curling behind his neck. She drew back slightly, her sweet lips pulling into a smile. She was laughing.

Raphael grumbled, and rested his forehead against her. "What's so funny?"

"I'm just glad that this time doesn't involve chocolate."

Raphael had to think a moment, but suddenly recalled the first time he had kissed her. It seemed so long ago, but it had really only been a couple days. She had just taken a lick from his chocolate ice cream cone. He smiled, too.

"Are you going to hit me now?" he asked, curiously.

Eris closed the remaining distance between them, her slender fingers fiddling with the hair at the back of his neck. Her kiss was soft, slow, unhurried. As if she had all the time in the world, and wasn't about to meet the father who abused her, cheat death with a bunch of kids she didn't know, and all together change the course of her entire life with one smooth blow. In other words, it was perfect. And as always, it was too easy to just kiss her back.

"Not that I don't find this little romance completely endearing," came Isabel's cold, hardened voice, piercing their cloud of perfect abandonment. "But would you two stop sucking face long enough for us to work out a plan. We need to get out of here."

Properly chastised (or at least, Eris was), they drew apart.

"Alright, what do we know?" Raven asked.

Eris spoke up, her voice strong and confident. When did that happen? "Julian wants to make a Mythic. I'm pretty sure that now that he has his…" She glanced at her hands which were now twitching with muscle spasms. Her feet were sending shocks of pain up her legs. She would very much like to die. She imagined it would be less painful. "Samples, he's finished with us. That's the reason he didn't bandage us up himself. If we were of any further value to him, he would have made sure to clean us up."

"But he didn't," Raven continued. "Meaning we're expendable."

"So that means…" John started, but trailed off suddenly, a scowl of pain wrinkling his brow. "A bomb."

"What?"

John had adopted his old method of speaking. Really really fast. "A bomb! There is a bomb in this building, set to go off in fifteen minutes. That's why there is no one here."

Panic bubbled into each of them momentarily, but was promptly pushed away. "Exits?" Raven asked.

"Can't find any," Raphael replied.

"Location of the bomb," Isabel asked.

"Somewhere in the building," John replied, helpfully.

The other Mythics might be used to the imminent threat of death, but Eris wasn't. "So great, we don't know where the exit is so we can't run for our bloody lives. We don't know where the bomb is, so we can't disarm it. Of course, we would only be able to disarm it if someone actually knew how to rewire an explosive in the first place."

"I can," Isabel said, looking slightly insulted.

Raphael was surprised. "What! I never taught you that!"

Isabel glared at him, but neglected to respond. "Eris, if you can find the bomb, I can rewire it."

It took Eris a second to realize she was the only Eris standing among them. She hoped that they were making some kind of a joke. "Who me? Are you crazy? I've only known about my powers for a few days."

John gripped her shoulders, giving them a solid shake. Eris instinctively flinched from the psychic's touch, but did not step away. "Eris, we're counting on you. You're the only one who can find it."

"But you…"

"I can find people, not things," John said, patiently. "Please, just do this. We can't find a way out." He could hear the trepidation, fear, and lack of confidence screaming in his ears from her head. She was also pushing away pain and shock as well as an imminent mental breakdown. Not the kind of person they wanted to trust their fate with, but there wasn't much choice.

"You're our only chance, Eris," Raphael said, softly.

"But no pressure," she muttered, weakly, walking toward the wall. "What did the bomb look like?"

John created an illusion for her to look at. Making sure she knew every last detail of the picture, she pressed one hand against the aged yellowing wall. _Find the bomb_, she told the water.

Nothing happened. She wasn't thrown into the insane swirl of running water through dark pipes. She could barely even feel the water anymore. She wiped the sweat from her palms nervously and tried again. There was a choking feeling of dread clawing up from her stomach; the fear that maybe she wasn't as powerful as the others hoped she was. When they really needed her gifts, she wouldn't be able to use them. Still, she felt nothing.

"It's not working," she said, her voice choked with unshed tears of pain and frustration. "Why isn't it working?"

There were many shouts at once. Isabel was livid, screaming herself hoarse at the blue-haired girl for her incompetence. Raven started yelling at Isabel for yelling at Eris. John yelled at both of them for yelling in the first place. Eris was thrown in the middle of it, her fingertips still brushing the dusty granules of the wall, but without feeling anything behind it. They were about to die. Even if she did manage to find where the bomb was, there was no way she would be able to get Isabel there in time to disarm it. She closed her eyes to tune it out.

Then she felt something. It was not the water, which was more like a mental itch in the back of her mind. It was a comforting, physical warmth spreading all around her. She opened her eyes to find herself firmly encompassed in Raphael's arms. "Forget about them," he muttered softly in her ear, stirring the indigo hairs tucked behind them. "Forget about all of this. We're back at the pool, with the cliff and the waterfall. You're trying to find something underwater." He gripped her hand in his and gently placed it against the wall. "Can you see it?"

What was it about Raphael? He was everything she needed at the moment she had to have it. Right now, all she wanted was someone to take away her confusion and worry, and here Raphael was, soaking the negative emotions from her very skin. Her back was resting against comfortably on his chest, and his free hand, the one that wasn't resting lightly upon her bandaged wrist, was wrapped around her body, giving her an unparalleled feeling of security. The water in the pipes behind the wall suddenly soared to life beneath her fingers.

Rushing through the roller coaster of dark, half made images, she snatched her hand back and snapped into action. "Follow me!"

Isabel, Raven and John looked up from the argument to realize they were being left behind. Isabel growled. "Come on!"

Every twist, every turn, every corner, seemed to be ticking away to their doom. When Eris paused to get her bearings, the rest of the Mythics could only hold their breath in dread, hoping it was not their last seconds to wait. Finally, after what seemed like torturous hours, but was really less than five minutes, they came across the explosive, tucked innocently in a corner. There was thirty seconds left on the timer.

"Isabel?" Raven asked, a note of panic in her voice.

Isabel wiped her palms on her bloody shirt and knelt at the steadily ticking timer. She had two choices. Either rewire it delicately to ensure it wouldn't blow up (which would take precious seconds, but ensure accuracy), or turn it into stone and hope that it wouldn't work if made of granite or marble.

She opened the casing carefully.

Fifteen seconds…

Examined the wires.

Ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven, six, five…

"Isabel!"

Four, three…

Isabel's gray eyes suddenly flashed, and the bomb was replaced by a harmless slab of stone. She prodded it just in case, but the timer didn't go off again. She glanced behind her. Raphael, John, Raven, and Eris were all cowered and wincing in preparation for an explosion that wouldn't happen.

"You can open your eyes, now. Scary part's over."

They sunk to the floor in relief, giggling nervously but happy… oh, so happy… to be alive.

And then, _BOOM!_ The wall behind them suddenly gave way in a shower of dust and metal. They threw their arms up to protect their face, but it was a futile effort.

But that wasn't right. They had stopped the bomb. So how did the wall…?

"Ssso sssorry. Where you resssting there?"

"I'm quite proud of you, Eris. You will come to be a very strong Mythic. All of you will." Julian's voice. That son of a bitch. Eris calculated the info she had been recently shown in her head. Bomb was a fake, her dad appeared out of nowhere (the habit was getting really annoying), and Hydra's powerful tail had just knocked out a wall. Well, that all lead up to one thing.

Eris was seriously pissed off.

"Do me a favor, Dad," she said, coughing through the dust of the decimated wall. "Piss off."


	15. Chapter 15 Daddy Dearest

**Well, it has taken me three weeks. Count em. Three! That's the longest I've ever taken for an update, and I'm really REALLY sorry. I just couldn't find my inspiration. But I'm back in action now, with a halfway decent chapter to boot. Cool, huh! And I still managed to finish some of my homework. Tlak about organized..**

**Mistress marionette:** I bow to your random humor. Truly I do. Hehe! O yea, and if u want a robin-hater, I'm sooo your girl. I mean, where does he get off being the leader if all he has is spandex, a metal stick, and a lack of intelligence?

**V:** calculus? Fun? I think not. But I'm starting to like rafey too. God dammit!

**Sirenic griffin: **why don't we all just give up on homework? It would be so much easier. O yea, and of this chapter will clear up hydra's unusual obedience.

**Hetherika: **huzzah for sucking face! Yay! More to come… I hope. Not in this chapter tho.

**Anyway… enjoy the chapter. The story is about over. Waaah! That means everyone (I do mean EVERYONE) who reads this must leave a review. **

Chapter 15- Daddy Dearest

Julian clocked Eris across the face with enough force to send her back to the littered floor. She really was getting tired of being hit. Her face probably looked like a freaking punching bag by now.

"Silence. Listen to me, now. If you attempt to run, I will make you use your powers against one another. I only need one of you. The fact that there are five is just an added bonus."

Isabel glowered at him with a sullen gray gaze. "There would have been six had you stopped shooting at us."

Julian shrugged, nonchalantly. "A necessary sacrifice, when you think of all that I'm gaining with that little inconvenience."

Raven gasped, her sharp, defined eyes narrowing in contempt and rage. "Inconvenience?"

Hydra hissed in warning, rapping his tail against Raven's knees. She cried out in pain, falling to the ground to hit her already injured arms.

John shook with anger. The anger wasn't even all his. Sure, he had quite a bit of it, but it was added to Raven's raw unquenchable rage, Isabel's cold, deadly hatred, and Eris's plain old insanity. "What more do you want? What more can you possibly take away from us!"

Julian scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself into thinking this is personal. It's nothing but business. Now, get up and follow me. I have something to show you."

No one moved. There was no reason to follow this sadistic patron of madness anywhere. And so, they wouldn't. They didn't move.

Julian's eyes narrowed, hardly even perceptible had they not been staring straight at him. There wasn't much of a chance to take note of this behavior, for Raven's jaw had dropped on its own accord, and from her lips screamed the harshest of sounds. She clamped her hand over her mouth to dampen the cry, but the effort was in vain. It rattled the others' eardrums just the same.

And of course, Hydra could not hear, and Julian had ear plugs. For some reason, that made Eris even angrier.

"Stop it!" Eris yelled, though she couldn't hear her own voice over Raven's ear puncturing scream. From her position on the littered floor, she threw herself at Julian's legs. This appeared to break his concentration over Raven, so she stopped screaming suddenly. This also made her a prime target for a hostage.

Julian wrenched Eris up by the hair, closing his arm around hers, pinioning them to her side. She growled in anger and frustration, fighting tooth and nail for freedom. "Let go of me!"

He wrenched her head back, and suddenly she felt something very cold and sharp being pressed into her neck. She gulped, and felt the sharp thing bite into the soft skin. There was a knife at her throat. "Stop struggling," Julian ordered. "You four come any closer, and I'll slit her throat," he added, as Raphael made a rush forward.

Raphael was sickened. "She's your daughter."

"That means nothing now."

There was fear in there somewhere. Somewhere deep inside Eris, she felt something that might be an old, lingering terror for Julian, but it was almost completely consumed by her rage. Unfortunately, her rage did her little good. She was still being held motionless against the man she hated more that the devil himself with a knife at her throat that was really quite sharp.

Julian seemed to understand her thought process, and the similar thoughts going through the rest of the Mythics' heads, for he gave a triumphant smirk and beckoned them forward. "Come on, there's a lot to do. Follow me. Hydra," Hydra's head quirked at the mention of his name. "Make sure they don't get any ideas."

So Eris was half pushed, half dragged, with the knife at her throat the entire time, down the hall. She assumed her friends were behind her, but it was kind of hard to tell given her current state of comfort.

She wanted to think of a plan. She wanted to do something incredibly heroic that would save her, her friends, let she and Rafe live happily ever after, and preferably leave Julian in a state of permanent discomfort. She wanted to, but she couldn't think of anything. As such, she endured simply cursing. Loud and long. With great pleasure.

"What do you want from us?" Isabel asked. "You already got your samples for your little science experiment. What more can you take?"

John winced a little at Isabel's proclamation. He was a firm believer in karma, and phrases like that always had a habit of coming back around.

Julian stopped walking, pausing in front of a door. It was the same as many others that lined the hallway, but John paled visibly in front of it. "What's wrong?" Raven asked softly.

"There's pain in there. A lot of it."

Julian released Eris, pushing her into the room first. It looked similar to the one they were contained in previously, plain, with a sink at one end and a cabinet of medical supplies beside it. Along the walls were stacked blue plastic cages, similar to the ones used to carry dogs and cats. These didn't hold pets, though.

The amount of negativity emanating from the room was like a physical strike to John. Walking through the doorway, he was assaulted by despair, depression, pain, terror… His stomach squirmed mercilessly, and without warning he vomited across the linoleum floor.

"These are the mistakes," Isabel said softly, walking around the room, and forcing herself to look in each and every cage. It was not a pretty picture. Contained in the little plastic prisons were children, none surpassing the age of ten. The small amount of pity she still held for herself and her head that screamed in pain, disappeared. Eyes sunken, cheeks hollowed; there was a multitude of injuries on each one. Some seemed so extreme, she marveled that they were still alive. "You did tests on real people, real _children_?" Isabel asked, disgusted. She had seen a lot in her eighteen years of life, but this was an all time low in the standards of human life. How anyone could even think about doing this to anyone… she couldn't even fathom.

"Let them go," Eris said, softly. She wanted to vomit as well. There was a little boy staring at her with wide, tormented eyes. His hands were not more than claws, broken and rebroken to the point that they healed too poorly for actual use. "Now."

Julian smiled, a strange hollow smile that didn't fully reach his eyes. He was not an attractive man, nor was he particularly unattractive. He could be any run-of-the-mill dad walking on the street, a little over-weight, hair thinning at the back of his head, with a minute amount of gray beginning to pepper his closely shaved beard. "My mistakes," he gestured around the room, as if introducing them to his children. "As my daughter has already deduced," (Eris winced at the word daughter as if it were a vile curse word.) "It is my desire to create a Mythic. There is such a small amount of us in the world; the odds that a child with Mythic blood is born on the thirteenth is slim at best, and most of the time they don't even accept what they truly are. Imagine all we could do, if more were just like us.

"These little errors are unfortunate, I will be the first to admit. But through my experiments I've gotten close, so close to success. Just look at Michael, who I turned into Hydra."

Raphael didn't look as surprised as the rest of them. He was a very well-learned person, and had quite a bit of knowledge in biology, as well as his economics, and mythology. "You screwed him up, too, though. He's aging too quickly. He can't think, either." While everyone else had been thinking of what was happening now, seeing their immediate danger, the children's pain, and, well, their immediate danger, Raphael had managed to push all that aside. Brow wrinkled in thought, he had begun putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

He could never figure out why Michael was so loyal to Julian. He obeyed him without question. It was just not right. There was the chance that Julian was controlling him, but Raphael had felt his Control before, and it only worked on a Mythics' powers, not their actions. Michael was the closest thing Julian ever had to success in his experiments. He was, literally, a created Mythic with utmost obedience to his creator.

A quick glance around this room, and he knew that Julian hadn't gotten it all right. Michael was, at a glance, at least five years older than any of the other experiments. He knew for a fact that the prime age to test for Mythic blood was prior to puberty. Julian seemed to know that as well. So, whatever he had done to Michael was causing him to age too fast. He would die in another (he did a quick, estimated calculation in his head, with the speeded rate of aging continuously accelerating the more he used his powers) five years. At the most.

And to Raphael's surprise, he was laughing. There was an odd sort of humor to it. "You fucked up good, Julian. You fucked up really good."

Julian gave a curt nod in his direction, neglecting to respond in any other way. "Yes, so you see, with your added samples, I should have been able to perfect the experiments."

"Should have," Raven prodded.

"There was a malfunction. I need another sample. From each of you."

Disbelief. That is the only word that could describe the Mythics' reaction. "You want us to desecrate our bodies willingly, after you just did so, just so we could see how much it's going to hurt," Isabel said. "Do I have that about right?"

Julian seemed frustrated. "Don't your understand all that we could do with the power to create Mythics. You wouldn't have to hide your powers anymore, you would be normal. No more running, no more changing your names and identities. Can you just imagine?" He turned his back to them as he continued to rant, beginning to pace like a caged lion. John took advantage of this moment to share a meaningful look with Raven.

Thankfully, Raven seemed to understand what he wanted. "Eris, become invisible." Amazingly, Raven was able to whisper so that her words were carried to Eris and only Eris. The trick was new, but undeniably awesome.

The moment Eris flickered out of sight, an illusion of her exact person appeared in her place. Eris couldn't help but stop to regard her appearance in disgust. She really did look a sight, hair ratted and uneven, blood soaking through her bandaged hands and covering her clothes in uneven smears, and of course, her wonderfully decorated face. Her lower lip was still swollen, and there was a nasty welt forming on her cheekbone. John must have made a mistake. There was no way she could look _that_ bad.

Well, she was officially invisible, conveniently ignoring everything Julian said because she hated every word that came out of his mouth. Now what? She sauntered over to Raven, pausing to stick her tongue out at her father with great relish. She poked Raven in the back to signal she was there.

Raven did her cool, ventriloquist whisper again. "John is going to make an illusion over the cages. Free the children. We'll take care of the rest."

How did they think of plans so fast? It seemed obvious now, but she had still been trying to figure out how to become invisible without anyone noticing, when John had put the illusion in her place.

Illusion-Eris said something that caused Julian to hit her again. Real-Eris winced, quite glad it wasn't her this time. She began unlocking the cage doors, willing the padlocks to break apart. Unfortunately, the captives didn't seem to keen on coming out.

"Come on, come on. Please, we don't have much time."

The girl inside this first cage compressed herself into a ball in the far corner of the cage. "Make it stop talking. Maddy, they're talking again."

Whoever Maddy was, did not answer. Eris shrugged. These kids had more than enough excuse to be a little bonkers. She'd be stark raving in their situation, too.

"What do you mean she's invisible? There's no such thing, is there?"

It took a long time to get all of them out of the cages, but as she proceeded down the line, Eris found that they weren't crazy as she had first suspected. In fact, they were quite intelligent.

Maddy couldn't talk. But Tara, the girl who complained about the voices, had a funny habit of reading minds. Ten children in all, each were terrified beyond all thought, but knew enough that this might be their only chance for freedom. As Tara said Maddy thought, they'd all be damned if they passed the chance up.

Outside the shield of an illusion John created over Eris and her little jail-break, all hell was breaking loose. Hydra, who, in his second form, could not hear, depended on his ability to feel sound vibrations on the air with his tongue. It was convenient, for it didn't matter how loud or soft anyone spoke. He would still, in a sense, be able to hear them. As such, he knew exactly what the Mythics were attempting to do. Or at least, he had a general idea, that he was pretty sure he needed to stop.

"Julian!" he barked, interrupting his creator's long winded speech. "Eris is invisible."

"What do you…" He growled in frustration suddenly, backhanding John with enough force to send him sprawling to the floor, breaking his concentration over the illusion of Eris. Nothing would make him drop the image of the undisturbed cages though. He was beginning to hear hope from their occupants.

"Isabel, now!" Raphael shouted suddenly. Smoothly, Isabel changed into Medusa, her damaged serpents hissing wildly on her head.

Hydra smirked. "There'sss only room for one reptile."

Medusa's eyes flashed gray, her jaw dropping open. "I concur." In Hydra's place stood a motionless figure of granite, her least favorite rock. She usually only saved granite for people she really didn't like.

And then it was Controller against Controller. Raphael had to hold back Julian both physically and mentally as Eris appeared before them, a child balanced on each hip. She handed them off to Raven who immediately took off, out the door.

Back and forth Eris ran from behind the screen of the illusion, and the whole time Raphael's brain seared in agony. He was a Controller, this was what he did best. Unfortunately, there were moments when it wasn't as simple as issuing an unrefuted command. Sometimes the subject had to be so damn resistant. Julian was trying to Control him at the same time. It made for an uncomfortable experience, to say the least.

Finally, after what seemed like eons, where actual tear were beginning to stream down Raphael's face from the sheer pain, Eris handed him to children, and promptly hoisted two more on her hip. "Come on, let's go, lover-boy." Raphael was only too glad to comply, and trotted as fast as he could while being weighed down by two kids. He was surprised when Eris didn't follow.

"Eris! Come on!"

"One second!" Julian was still disoriented from the sudden relapse of Raphael's presence in his head. Putting down the boy with the damaged hands (his name was Tyler), she swung her fist at her Julian with as much force as her skinny arms could muster. Her knuckles closed with his nose with the most satisfactory crunch and spurt of red. Sure, it caused her already damaged hand to just about break, and yes, as she picked up Tyler once more and hurried to join the others, she realized that such a victory would be considered shallow and superficial to most people.

Fortunately, she didn't really care what most people thought.


	16. Chapter 16 Now What?

**im finished! im finished! o yea... its my birthday! okay, well actually its not, but it feels good to finally have this done. plus, i updated two times in as many days! that totally deserves a ton of reviews. for all of you who read this story but didnt review, this is the LAST chapter. for all the reviews you didnt give me over the course of the story, give me one now. PLEEEEEAAAASE! **

**and of course, to everyone who has reviewed... thank thee!**

Chapter 16- Now What?

The five Mythics and ten kids were all sitting on the floor of Isabel's apartment. The kids were huddled together nervously, looking at the five with a mixture of fear and expectation. It was silent. The kids were afraid to talk, and the Mythics had nothing to say.

Eris broke the awkward silence with a very wise proclamation. "I'm hungry. Who wants pizza?"

"What's pizza?" Tyler asked.

This silence was not an awkward one like before. It was a silence of utter disbelief. "You've never had pizza before," Eris asked, jaw dropped in utter shock. To her, never having pizza was a sin. "Where's the phone?"

Forty five minutes and a withdrawal from Isabel's bank account later, twelve large pies of pizza arrived. Now, the silence was one of utter contentment.

"Do you guys have families? A home?" John asked, casually gnawing on the crust of his fifth slice.

A girl, her name was Julia, answered. "None of us have a home, least not what we can remember. Maddy's the only one who remembers her parents, and they died."

"Is that true?" John asked Maddy.

Tara answered for her. "Maddy can't talk, sir. The beast did something funny to her voice. She says that it is true, and she wants another piece of pizza."

"How do you know she said that," Isabel asked, who was looking for some kind of sign language between the two.

"She told me in my head," Tara replied.

Raven and John shared a look. Hearing emotions was a pain in itself; reading minds must be unbearable.

"Does anyone else have powers," Raphael asked.

All ten raised their hands obediently. As it happened, Julian had managed to pass on one of the handy tricks of a Mythic to each of these children, but still hadn't been able to manage actually giving them a second form. Isabel requested a side-bar.

Hopefully far enough away from the children that they wouldn't hear, the Mythics began talking. "What are we going to do with them? We can't just dump them in a foster home. They'll be eaten alive."

"We can't keep them either," Raven said. "None of us know how to take care of children."

Inevitably, the two got in a heated whisper fight, until Raven gave in. "Alright, we'll keep them, but not here."

"Then where?" Isabel asked.

John interjected his opinion. "A school."

"Huh?"

"Think of all the Mythics in the world, all of them who go crazy by the time they're fourteen, have to hide their second shape, live in fear. What if we could make a haven for them, where they don't have to be scared. We have enough money," he glanced at Isabel when he said this. "We could hire teachers-"

"Who preferably wouldn't run screaming if a student became a monster by chance," Isabel commented dryly.

"I think we could do it," John said, finally.

Raphael scoffed. "I hate to break it to you, but there is no we. There never was, there never will be. Just because a saved a bunch of kids with you doesn't mean we're suddenly hunky-dorey. The minute I walk out of this apartment, we're back to being on different sides."

John looked at the blue haired girl, who was fidgeting nervously, biting her lip. "Eris?"

"I'm sorry. You are the most amazing people I've ever met, but I don't think I'm ready for something like this. I'm not like you. While I'd love to help you in any way I could, what you're suggesting… That would be my entire life. I'm not sure if that's what I want for it."

"Isabel?"

The girl shrugged. "You wouldn't be able to do this without me. Do you know all the laws I have to break to create a school? That's like…" she grinned in pleasure at the thought. It seemed like the jewelry store was last month's news. She wanted a life of danger and adventure. This seemed a pretty good way to go about that. "Count me in."

Raven grinned. "Me, too."

"We'll do it for David," John said, with the utmost assurance.

"Yeah, for David."

A thought occurred to Eris. "Wait, what about Julian?"

All the Mythics stared at her as if she couldn't believe she was asking such a stupid question. "Do you think we just left him there?" Isabel asked.

Raphael explained everything for Eris's sake. "Isabel and I already froze all of his accounts, erased all of his records, and created a false police report on him that will have him arrested before the week is up."

"Oh."

So Raphael and Eris left the apartment, feeling an odd mixture of regret, pride, and pain as they did so. "Call me if you ever need a Naiad who has no idea what she's doing," Eris whispered in Isabel's ear as she gave her a hug.

Isabel rolled her eyes. "Don't get all mushy. We'll be seeing each other again soon. Especially if you stay with him." She raised her eyebrows in Raphael's direction, who was waiting by the door, impatient to leave.

As they walked down the street, beginning the seemingly thousand mile trek back to Eris's house (Eris hanging onto Raphael the entire time, for her feet refused to hold her weight anymore), Raphael asked her a question. "So, now what?"

_Right foot, left foot, right foot- ow!- left foot_. Eris wasn't paying much attention to her future. Currently, her only desires for a future resided in a hot shower, and a warm bed. "What do you mean, now what?"

"I mean, what do we do next, now that the bad guy is gone and the world is saved?"

Eris grumbled, wondering how her brother would react when he saw her arrive home in the state she was in. "Answer my question first. When we were back with Julian, and John created that illusion of me when I became invisible, is that really what I look like?"

Raphael bit his lip, trying hard not to smile. "Yeah."

Her dreams of a long endless sleep shriveled up like a slug on a salt shaker inside of her. "Guess that means they'll have questions."

"Yeah."

"And you'll have to answer them."

"Ye- what!"

Eris grinned devilishly. "Oh come on, your used to living your life on the edge. Us rookies need a chance to absorb it all before we go get pestered by our families."

"So what? Absorb after you talk to Jason and Lily. Your brother will kill me when he finds out I put you in danger."

"Pleeeeaaaase," Eris begged. "You owe me a favor anyway."

Rafe scoffed, disbelievingly. "From what?"

If possible, Eris's evil little smile grew larger. "Stopping Isabel from castrating you."

"Oh." Raphael thought about it for a second, and decided that anything Jason could do to him was better than Eris turning him over to Isabel. "I guess I can cover for you."

She gave a little whoop of triumph, and kissed him softly on the lips. "Thank you!"

Tired of having Eris hang on him, he scooped her up, one hand under her knees and the other behind her shoulders, ignoring her shouts of protest. "I think I need to be thanked better than that."

Eris laughed, and complied.


End file.
